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
More details in 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.
Solution
Dorothy is an innovative circular learning model fusing technology, education, and collaborative spaces to provide a safe and supportive environment for women that consists of two pillars:
- Space Dorothy, an itinerant installation breaking down barriers and promoting dialogue, and
- Platform Dorothy, a digital platform offering expert content and fostering a conscious female community.
Research
Surveys revealed dismal attitudes towards education, particularly in the areas of reproductive physiology and aging. A further investigation revealed unreliable sources and a lack of information. To fully understand the scope of the problem, diverse interview approaches were employed, leading to two key insights: the necessity of a reliable information source and the importance of increasing visibility and awareness on women's reproductive health.
After identifying five user archetypes and prioritizing two, the most enlightening discovery was that all of them, regardless of age or problem, shared the same pain points and frustrations in their user journeys.
A two-leg
solution
The Space Dorothy mission aims to educate, bring visibility, and reduce stigma by promoting open dialogue, and empowering women to make informed decisions about their bodies. On the other hand, the Platform Dorothy will offer expert and up-to-date content, such as instructional units and articles, podcasts, and videos, presented by women’s health professionals.
Below you will find a MoSCoW prioritization matrix I used to determine what should be included in our MVP, and examples of the instructional units, and the supportive Partner feature.
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.
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.