Dorothy, there’s no UX like home
Leveraging Design Thinking to Empower Women with Comprehensive Knowledge about their Menstrual Cycle and Reproductive Journey.
UI/UX Case Study
Find the full case on my Medium story
Brief
Dorothy was born from my attempt to resolve the challenge: How may we ensure that women are informed about female physiology (aka their bodies), reproductive cycles, and evolutionary changes in order to make informed and conscious decisions?.
Problem Statement
Women are not adequately educated on reproductive physiology and age-related changes. Frustration, anxiety, fear, and guilt resulted from this misunderstanding. Women expressed the need for a reliable source of information and increased visibility on these crucial topics.
Challenge
In 2024, many women still lack adequate information about their menstrual cycles and reproductive health, impacting their decision-making and well-being. The key challenge was to:
Address the gaps in knowledge around reproductive physiology.
Break the stigma surrounding discussions about women's health.
Provide a trustworthy, engaging platform where women can find information, support, and community.
Research & Discover
Conducted 150 surveys, 8 in-depth interviews, and a focus group with women aged 29 to 43. This allowed me to identify a widespread dissatisfaction with the current education on reproductive health.
Key insights included the need for reliable information sources and a desire for visibility and open dialogue about reproductive topics.
Developed user personas and identified five archetypes, with a focus on two, based on common pain points and frustrations such as anxiety, lack of trustworthy information, and social pressure.
Problem Definition
Formulated the design challenge: How might we ensure that women are informed about their physiology, reproductive cycles, and life changes to make conscious decisions?
Identified that creating a supportive, safe space and a trusted channel for information were crucial elements for the solution.
To address this new challenge, I identify the essential core of my solution:
Women need a safe space to feel understood and supported.
Visibility and awareness are essential.
The most important thing is to provide and facilitate a channel of information that is reliable, truthful, and verified.
A two-leg
solution
And that’s where Dorothy comes in… But what is Dorothy?
Dorothy is a circular learning model that combines technology, education, and collaborative physical spaces.
The goal of Dorothy is to facilitate access to and ease of understanding of information and knowledge about one’s body, health, and well-being for all women.
👩🏻🦰 Why Dorothy?
Dorothy, the main character of The Wizard of Oz, perfectly embodies the spirit of a safe place we strive to achieve with her iconic phrase there’s no place like home.
As previously mentioned, Dorothy is a circular learning model based on two pillars:
Space Dorothy
Platform Dorothy
Space Dorothy
An itinerant installation with an immersive experience. Why is itinerant? In order to reach more women and places where Dorothy may be most needed.
Educating, bringing visibility, raising awareness, and giving voice to topics related to the health and body of women is its primary goal.
Moreover, it aims to break down barriers and stigma by promoting open dialogue, enabling women to make informed decisions about their bodies.
Dorothy, the platform
A digital space that brings expert and up-to-date content in the form of instructional units and additional content such as articles, podcasts, and videos, presented by renowned professionals in the field of women’s health.
Its main mission is to educate and provide accurate information while promoting the development of an informed, supportive, and conscious female community.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Developed wireframes and interactive prototypes, focusing on a clean and intuitive user interface that reflects the welcoming spirit of Dorothy.
Created an MVP prioritization using the MoSCoW method to ensure key features like instructional units, user search functions, and peer support were included.
Value proposition and Business model
In terms of the value proposition of the project, it is easy to provide value when there is nothing similar on the market. Several resources are available about menstruation, fertile days, and pregnancy, but none of them provide comprehensive education or information.
From our value proposition, I would highlight that we aim to provide a reliable and accessible resource you can refer to whenever you have doubts throughout your life as a woman. Furthermore, we strive to provide an effective method of debunking myths or biased information, two major concerns that have been identified.
In order to ensure Dorothy’s essence, purpose, and philosophy can continue to be maintained, it is important to emphasize the resources we intend to have in the business model, but even more important is to clarify what we do not intend to have.
Considering the nature of Dorothy, it would make sense to seek public funding, however, we are not closing the door to private investors as long as they share our ethical values. The same applies to advertisers or sponsors; they will be strictly monitored and regulated to ensure their actions do not interfere with the message or compromise our content accuracy.
Ej. Ok: Naturitas Woments
Ej. No: Fertility Clinic
II propose two viable channels for income and benefits:
Both the physical space and the platform will be sponsored
Tickets and merchandise sales
We would never consider selling user data in order to ensure confidentiality and to maintain our safe environment model.
Visual Design
The branding of Dorothy emphasized a safe, feminine, and informative environment.
The Made Mirage font in its bold version was selected for key elements such as the logo and callouts because of its assertiveness, femininity, and contrast with the main font, Neue Montreal. New Montreal's contrast and legibility are essential qualities for an integrated information platform like Dorothy.
As for the corporate colors, I used the 60-30-10 rule: I chose neon orange as the accent color due to its association with wisdom and knowledge. I paired it with its opposite, indigo blue. Throughout the rest of the content, we have implemented a grayscale scale that not only allows for proper legibility but also allows us to prioritize information and elements appropriately.
Looking toward
the future
An ideal outcome would be for the project to transition into permanent Dorothy Centers, providing an ongoing and open door for those in need.
Further, we hope that Dorothy sparks a discussion that leads to change and opens the door for the inclusion of a Comprehensive Women’s Unit in Spain’s Public Healthcare.
In terms of future collaborations, one of the best scenarios would be partnering with streaming platforms such as Netflix or HBO to include our content and reach a broader audience of females.
Learnings and Conclusions
The experience of working on this project has been extremely rewarding. As a result of everything I have learned, I would like to highlight four points:
Females lack adequate education regarding the functioning of their bodies and the effects of hormones.
There is no true freedom of choice without reliable sources of information.
Rather than being a generational issue, it is rather widespread. Women face different challenges throughout their lives, but there are certain pain points that remain constant throughout.
When you empathize, it is difficult to stop the research. In the course of my research, and still to this day, I receive messages from women who want to share their experiences.
I invite you to explore further Dorothy and its mission to empower women, debunk myths, and inspire meaningful change in women's health and well-being through my Medium page in both English and Spanish.