Cycle
Track your period, pregnancy, & well-being.
Cycle
The many stages women go through have always been full of uncertainty and unanswered questions. I discovered my womanhood through natural instincts and what is described as ‘normal’ expectations from society. The dilemma between what is normally expected vs. what my body is telling me is often due to lack of awareness & vague explanations. My mission is to create a platform to help women discover every stage of their livelihood. This project required research from women going through different stages of their life. I reached out to women around me going through these various stages, and used what I learned to create a project designed to help women keep track of their period, pregnancy, and daily health.
My Role
UX/UI Designer, Project creator
(Individual case study)
Timeframe
1 Month
Platform
iOS Mobile Application
Tools
Post-its, Sketch App, Invision, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Craft
The Challenge
There’s not enough education, awareness, and resources that guide women through the many stages of womanhood such as period, pregnancy, postpartum, motherhood, and menopause.
The Approach
Creating a platform that carefully curates every aspect of womanhood through one convenient app. Tracking periods, ovulation, pregnancy, exploring and informing users of the potential possibilities that may occur in their body and state of mind. Creating a pleasant and simple design for women of all ages.
The Vision.
The vision is to provide women with accurate predictions, information, and to connect users in the community for open discussion and sharing of all the many stages of life specific to all women. The ultimate goal is to provide a safe and knowledgable community of women users eager to educate themselves and share their experiences with likeminded women.
Tracking
Tracking period, pregnancy, and well-being to analyze and predict symptoms for users to be more aware of in regards to their body.
Convenience
A single app that is convenient for women on the go. Equipped with information and easy accessibility to various topics.
Discover
Learn and discover topics, products, events, etc. to assist in a life of better well-being.
Community
Creating the sense of being part of a community. Share and gain real stories and experiences from other women. Reach and seek advice from people with the same real experiences.
Research.
Period & PMS
Why do women have periods? What changes can you expect from your first period? Symptoms and treatments for PMS.
Postpartum
What is postpartum depression? Is it normal to go through postpartum? How to treat postpartum depression.
Ovulation
What is ovulation? Why and how does it occur? What happens when you are ovulating?
Motherhood
What to expect as a stay at home as well as working mother. What society expects a mother to be in this day and age. Embracing motherhood.
Pregnancy
What happens during pregnancy? How do you prepare for your baby and yourself? What are some physical and mental changes that occur during pregnancy?
Menopause
What is menopause? What are some of the symptoms and causes of menopause? How to treat menopause depression.
Birth
Natural and Caesarean birth. What can happen and what to expect during and after birth?
Breast Health
Early symptoms of breast cancer. Causes and treatments for better breast health. Detecting lumps correctly.
Flo
Pros: Tracks period and pregnancy. Predicts period and ovulation. Provides health insights and health surveys to better understand user’s body and provide more accurate predictions. Has a ‘secret chats’ section for open discussions such as, pregnancy loss recovery, pre-menopause, relationship advice, sex, etc. Overall, Flo has a pleasantly designed interface for users who are seeking assistance in tracking their period and pregnancy.
Cons: Does not go beyond tracking and predicting period and pregnancy. Lacks connection with community and various topics that are raised in womanhood.
What to Expect
Pros: Tracks pregnancy for pregnant users and updates status of baby. Provides insights on baby’s day to day growth, user’s symptoms, and recommends products. Has a section where you can ‘ask your doctor.’ Predicts what to expect in future weeks.
Cons: App is designed for pregnant users only. Does not go beyond pregnancy or explore topics of complications that may occur during pregnancy.
Eve.
Pros: Manage well-being and track period. Explores various topics such as, beauty, body, period, breast health, sex, etc. Provides open discussions and information about sex and other topics.
Cons: Targets young audience instead of all ages. Pushes users to pay and go premium to get more out of the app. There are too many ads that distract overall design aesthetics.
User Interviews & Findings
Asking the REAL questions.
A lot of women do not openly discuss their periods, hardships from pregnancy, motherhood, etc. It is not an openly discussed topic in our society. Often, pregnancy and motherhood is perceived as a joyous event with positive feedback. However, in reality there are REAL stories behind how they overcome each stage of their womanhood.
It was crucial to ask questions that may be personal because it is perceived as a private topic. Each interview began with basic questions regarding knowledge of the topic and it ended up being an open book of hidden answers and real personal experiences. Each interviewee had different experiences but there was one common problem; learning to ‘just deal with it.’
Through my knowledge and from the interviews I found empathy for these women going through their suffering alone and learning to just deal with it. I found that awareness and the openness of these women trying to understand what was happening to their body was a crucial point. Womanhood is made of various stages. It can be simplified and easily understood in the right kind of platform which would create a space where all unspoken topics are openly discussed and available. Guiding women from all ages and race to discover what and why these changes occur in their body. The signs, symptoms, and guidance are the key points in creating Cycle.
Survey.
It was important to learn how women educate themselves about feminine topics. Period, PMS, pregnancy, abortion, postpartum, menopause, and more related topics were explored in this survey to grasp how and where women felt comfortable asking personal concerns and questions.
“I learned about puberty and pregnancy from my mom and girlfriends. This topic is not openly discussed in society.”
— Michelle
“I asked help from my doctor for my morning sickness and she told me to just deal with it. There’s no cure.”
— Nancy
“I received 1 pamphlet during my 1st and 2nd trimester at my doctors appointment. I did not get any other information about pregnancy or what was going to happen to my body.”
— Susan
“At 35, I still don’t know what goes on in my body.”
— Christine
Key Topics.
Postpartum Mystery
Postpartum is not openly discussed. It’s a real issue that mothers go through after having a baby.
First Period Encounters
Most women learn about their first period through their mother, sibling, and friends. First periods are usually guided through other’s perspective rather than proper education from schools.
Pregnancy Disorders
Most women are unaware of pregnancy disorders and complications until they learn about it through others.
Pregnancy Complications
Beyond morning sickness, there are more complications that could occur during pregnancy. Most women are uninformed of potential health problems that occur during pregnancy.
Fertility
Misleading information and warnings of accidental pregnancy delude women to believe they can get pregnant at any time.
Motherhood
Motherhood is far more challenging and it is not explained accurately in our society. Stay at home moms and working moms have various problems juggling their lives and their baby.
Birth Control Myths
True findings and debunking myths of birth control’s side effects and ultimate outcome in birth.
Womanhood
Womanhood is formulated from various stages of changes and growth. It’s essential to expose all the stages of womanhood to young and mature women. The journey that women go through should be validated and heard to better understand human development.
Persona.
Design Process.
“Categorize topics in the main page to make it condensed. Add classes for workouts and informative meetings in one section.
— Jasmin
“Create a calendar that predicts your period and ovulation month to month.”
— Jennifer
“Add a favorite section so users can add and like all the products, articles, etc. in one section.”
— Sharon
Key Features.
Track.
Cycle tracks user’s period, ovulation, pregnancy, fetus growth, and well-being. User’s daily log will better predict and evaluate symptoms as well as health insights.
Community.
Going beyond research by being part of a community where users can discuss and share their experiences, give and receive advice.
Explore.
Designed to conveniently track, research, and learn about related information. Each designated menu icons take our user to various topics regarding womanhood.
Discover.
Cycle provides a ‘discover’ section where users can find new, organic, better products, find healthy remedies and workouts, related books, podcasts, and more.
Explore Cycle.
Next Steps.
Evolving Cycle into a user friendly guide for new mothers. Explore the after effects of birth and motherhood is another matter that can be developed to help mothers recover their body, better understand the changes, and help track mothers and the baby’s well-being.