MenoCare

Problem Statement

Menopausal women need better understanding of menopause and support so that they can navigate through their daily activities with ease using effective coping methods.

Our Goal

Our goal is to develop an all-inclusive mobile application that serves as a supportive companion for women undergoing menopause. This app aims to address the identified gaps and provide resources they need to thrive during this phase of life.

Design Process

The following design process framework was used to get a user-centered approach in solving the problem as it gave us a deeper understanding of the users and their needs.

Target Audience

The target audience for MenoCare includes women typically in their late 40s to early 60s, although menopause can occur earlier or later for some individuals.

User Research

We conducted primary research where we interviewed 5+ diverse women who were in different stages of menopause.

Competitive Analysis

From the market study conducted, only one menopause app was identified from the Indian market, the Menobox App. The other two referenced apps, the Balance App and Midday App, have been taken from international markets.

Secondary Research

We also explored the landscape of wearables utilized in the domain of health and wellness, with a particular focus on devices catering to feminine health needs.

• WHOOP Coach which is a wearable armband has reproductive toggles to help members track ovulation, trying to conceive, pregnancy, perimenopause and postmenopause. It helps you better understand how your body changes and personalize recommendations around different life stages.
• Oura Ring is a wearable device without a screen that integrates with other healthcare apps and tracks symptoms, sleep and body temperature among others and alerts you when you experience a hot flash or a cold sweat and provides you with a list of methods to cope with it.
• Embr Wave is a wearable wristband that provides personalized thermal relief, where users can manually adjust the temperature to provide cooling or warming sensations.

Affinity Mapping

We gathered our data from user interviews, and collectively created affinity and empathy maps. This helped us track patterns and gather key insights across participants.

User Personas

We categorized our users into two types and created two personas to represent them. Persona Mei is an Independent tech savvy individual looking for easy coping methods and Persona Sunita is a family oriented non tech savvy individual looking for discreet solutions.

User Journey

Goal: Walk into the user’s shoes, relate to their struggles and take the steps they would take during menopause.

HMW Statements

How might we....

• ...create awareness of menopause and reduce stigma of sexual health and intimacy?
• ...make women feel confident about their symptoms and provide better health management?
• ...make information around menopause and intimacy fun and accessible?
• ...integrate wearables usage into menopausal women’s lives seamlessly such that it tracks their health data and provide personalized insights?
• ...gain the trust of women to provide their health data to us and properly safeguard their personal privacy?

Ideation

After conducting our user interviews and gathering feedback, we found that users were lacking awareness of the symptoms they were experiencing, did not talk about their experience with someone, and searched for information online to learn how to cope with their symptoms. The HMW statements served as a guide for us.

As such, our ideation focused on how we could help menopausal women:

Idea generation

We began with idea generations and voted for the ideas we were in favour of, then used the prioritization matrix to determine which features we should work on.

Sketches

Worked on conceptualizing the features in the sketching phase.

Information Architecture

To decide on the content and ways to structure them, we created an Information Architecture.

Mid-fidelity prototypes

Usability Test

To test the feasibility of our app we created a usability study plan (linked here) and conducted usability tests with four participants.

Goal:

‍Our goal was to observe...

• ...how users interacted with the app
• ...how they felt about certain pages
• ...if they got stuck at any point
• ...and note any frustrations or points of delight while navigating the app

Method:

• Interviews were conducted remotely via Zoom and in person
• Each interview lasted for 45 min on average
• Our interview notes are recorded here

Example Tasks:

• Task 1: If you had to book an appointment with your doctor, how would you do it? Follow up - On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy was it to for you (5 being extremely easy)?  Is there any way we can improve on it?
• Task 2: If you had to reach out to your community for advice what steps would you take?Follow up - What steps would you take to join a group. On a scale of 1 to 5, how easy was it to complete the task? (5 being extremely easy)

Usability Test Insights

Main takeaways from the usability test

• Our app navigation was unclear, making it difficult for participants to find options and often getting stuck. We needed to make the app clear and intuitive.
• Due to the age group of the participants (mid 50s), they were less tech-savvy and were unable to understand the icons used and the layout was too complicated for them. We needed to find a way to cater to their age group needs by simplifying things.
• Decided to focus on the key screens for high fidelity, which was the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Priority was to ensure users could navigate and understand our screens instead of diverging our efforts on all screens.

Style Guide

High Fidelity Prototypes