Holistic Ovaries

Designing an app for a women’s health startup

Role & Team

UX/UI Designer in a 3-person team

Duration

2 weeks

Tools

Miro & Figma

Project Overview

How can we support women with PCOS in managing their symptoms on a daily basis?

This is the problem Agnieszka aimed to solve by creating Holistic Ovaries. Suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) herself, the founder faced numerous challenges in obtaining an accurate diagnosis and managing her symptoms on a daily basis. Today, her company’s mission is to raise awareness among women about the psychological aspects of PCOS and help them regain their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Agnieszka wanted to collaborate with UX/UI Designers to create an initial version of a mobile application that would assist women in managing their PCOS in their daily lives. The founder already had a solid vision for her application but needed an external perspective to determine which features to prioritize for the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by developers.

The Problem: Women suffering from PCOS struggle to find reliable information and the necessary support to manage their symptoms on a daily basis.

The Solution: Along with two other UX/UI Designers, we designed a mobile application to provide women with PCOS a digital platform where they can track their symptoms and/or access information about the condition.

Throughout the project, we relied on the Design Thinking methodology.

Research

What is PCOS? Is there a market for a mobile application?

Conducting research before we begin

When we started the project, we had little to no knowledge of PCOS and how it impacted the lives of those affected by it. Therefore, it was crucial for us to gain a better understanding of what PCOS was through preliminary research. Conducting research beforehand was also essential to determine whether designing a mobile application would indeed fulfill a genuine need.

The research results were clear-cut. There was a significant market, and the scope of the problem was much larger than anticipated. For instance:

PCOS affects 1 in 12 women of reproductive age

The market size was estimated at $3.20 billion in 2021

It is projected to grow at a rate of 4.8% from 2022 to 2030

Our research confirmed the existence of a niche market. What was surprising was that through this research, we discovered that many women suffered from PCOS.

This piqued our curiosity, leading us to investigate whether there were already existing applications addressing the needs of women with PCOS.

Market analysis

Given that it was a niche market, it was also important to analyze the main competitors to determine how we could differentiate ourselves from them. Our various research efforts and discussions with the Founder of Holistic Ovaries allowed us to identify what we considered the main competitors.

Our main conclusion from this analysis was that the positioning varied considerably depending on whether the application was free or paid. This led us to see an opportunity to design an application that would provide more personalized support based on the main symptoms a potential user might have.

Quantitative analysis

How does PCOS impact the daily lives of women suffering from it?

Initially, we conducted a quantitative study with women living with diagnosed PCOS. The objectives of the quantitative study were to:

Understand the impact of PCOS on their lives.
Learn how they experienced their diagnosis.
Understand their habits and behaviors since their diagnosis.
Begin to identify what they would want in a mobile application dedicated to managing their PCOS on a daily basis.

Results and conclusions for the quantitative analysis

Women with PCOS lack sufficient knowledge when they are diagnosed.

PCOS has a significant impact on their lives. Information provided by their doctors is insufficient. Among the important findings, we noted that:

68.2% of users had intermediate knowledge of PCOS.

27.3% felt that doctors’ advice was not helpful at all.

63.6% believed that PCOS somewhat affected their daily lives.

Based on the overall results, we began to formulate several hypotheses about the needs of our ideal user:

Users lack sufficient knowledge about PCOS.
Women with PCOS are often confused.
Women with PCOS are unsure of the steps to take after diagnosis.
Many are unaware that hormonal birth control is not a definitive treatment or a long-term solution.
Users desire an easy and intuitive way to track their symptoms.
Users seek information about the next steps in managing PCOS.
Although some use cycle tracking, they struggle to maintain consistency over the long term.

Qualitative analysis

We interviewed 5 individuals suffering from diagnosed PCOS.

The interviews were conducted to validate the hypotheses generated following the quantitative study and to deepen our understanding of the needs and challenges that potential users might face.

I want to learn more because PCOS is a part of my life

I received incorrect information from the doctor who said that PCOS was like diabetes.

The doctors were neither helpful nor reassuring.

After being diagnosed, I started conducting research, finding groups, and wanting to learn more about how to manage the situation and take action.

Results and conclusion of the qualitative analysis.

Women with PCOS can feel very isolated in their daily lives due to what they are going through.

Affinity diagram

To analyze the results and group the major ideas that emerged from the interviews, we used an “Affinity Diagram.” The themes that emerged included:

Negative experiences with medical experts.
Difficulty managing symptoms due to the lack of guidance from medical experts.
A challenging experience after diagnosis

Persona

We grouped the goals, motivations, and pain points that surfaced most frequently through the creation of a persona.

The customer journey

We recreated the user’s experience to gain a better visual understanding of the experience that our persona, Emily, had with her PCOS.

This user journey allowed us to begin thinking about features that could be integrated into the application.

Ideation

How do we define the essential features of the application when women with PCOS face so many challenges?

Challenges encountered

Women with PCOS face numerous challenges. In response to this observation, the team generated a multitude of feature ideas that could assist these women. We were all excited about designing these solutions. However, we encountered several challenges:

It was important to address the needs of users while respecting the founder’s vision for the application. However, a crucial piece of information was missing: whether the application would be free or paid. Our pre-project competitor studies had shown that the level of customization depended largely on whether the application was free or paid.
It was important for us to prioritize the main features because, as mentioned earlier, the founder of Holistic Ovaries wanted to create an MVP with only the most important features.
Within the team, we had many discussions about what we wanted to include in the “education” section. Should it be generic content in the form of articles or videos, or should it be personalized programs generated by AI based on the information provided by the user when they first downloaded the application?

Problem statement

We first redefined the main problem we wanted to solve.

Moscow & MVP

We used the Moscow method to list all the features we thought would be valuable for the application and then redefined what our MVP should be to classify our ideas and identify the essential and priority features to design for the project.

Our decisions

This led us to the following features for our MVP:

Symptom, Treatment, and Cycle Tracking: Since Emily has to live with her PCOS daily, we included symptom, treatment, and cycle tracking. This feature allows her to monitor and manage her symptoms effectively, offering better control over her condition and overall well-being, relieving her of mental burden.
“Ask the Experts” Feature: To address her difficulty in finding reliable information and her desire for advice and support, we integrated an “Ask the Experts” feature. This interactive feature allows her to receive personalized answers from experts, ensuring access to accurate and reliable information to address her concerns.
Educational Content: Considering her negative experiences with empathetic medical experts, we added an educational content navigation feature. This section offers a variety of informative resources, allowing her to familiarize herself with PCOS and make informed decisions about her health and lifestyle. As mentioned recently, deciding what constituted educational content led to many discussions within the team. The founder explained that she wanted to develop a free application for now, which led us to focus solely on a feature that would contain basic, non-personalized information about PCOS.

As UX/UI designers, we believed that an “Online Community” feature was important and would address the major needs of potential users lacking support. In fact, this seemed to be the main feature that would differentiate Holistic Ovaries from other existing applications on the market.

However, after discussing it with the founder and despite our arguments, she indicated that she did not want to create this feature (due to a lack of time to manage a community) and preferred to replace it with a FAQ feature

Sitemap and user flow

After agreeing on the main features that the application should have, we defined the site map.

By creating the user flow, we also determined the ideal path she would take when opening the application daily. We ensured that Emily could easily navigate the application, track her data, educate herself, and seek professional advice to effectively manage her PCOS.

Design

Let's Move on to Prototypes!

Low-Fidelity Prototype

It was now time to outline the application concept through low-fidelity wireframes.

After ideation, with the help of the Crazy 8 technique, we developed the following screens:

The home page, where users can enter various symptoms.
Tracking tabs, providing a weekly, monthly, and annual symptom journal.
A FAQ section, allowing Emily to ask questions to the expert.
Educational tabs, offering informative content and “self-care” tools.

Concept Testing

To determine if the concept was appealing, we conducted Concept Testing. The feedback was largely positive. All features were well-received. However, some users encountered difficulties with the terminology and the presentation of information. Based on this valuable feedback, we revised our wording and information presentation, especially for symptom management, to improve user comprehension and ensure a smooth user experience.

Medium-Fidelity Prototype

Based on the feedback received, we continued developing our medium-fidelity mockups to focus on the “functionality” aspect this time. Our objectives were as follows:

Design a clear and intuitive home page.
Create an accurate tracking tab with easily readable graphs.
Ensure clear and concise wording throughout the application.
Create an easily navigable and readable educational tab.
Improve the readability of the navigation bar.

With these goals in mind, we refined the design to provide users with a user-friendly and visually appealing experience.

Usability Testing

We also conducted usability tests, which once again provided valuable feedback to further enhance our high-fidelity prototype.

The findings revealed the following areas for improvement:

Users had difficulties with the “click to add a medication” feature.
Figures on the graph remained somewhat unclear and challenging to read for some testers.
The navigation bar icons lacked clarity and were not easily understandable.

The Ui Part

We didn't know it at the time, but the UI part proved to be challenging! How to convey the founder's values through her brand image?

Brand image analysis of competitors

We revisited the 5 competitors and compared their typography, colors, and icons. We also took screenshots to get a sense of each application’s look and feel.

Moodboard

We then created a Moodboard to start generating ideas about the emotions we wanted to convey that would align with the founder’s personality and brand image up to that point. We quickly agreed that the brand should convey:

Softness
Femininity
Positive and friendly enthusiasm

One of our client’s requirements that we couldn’t compromise on was the incorporation of the aqua green color associated with PCOS. However, due to the prevalence of aqua green among other competitors, finding a unique color that resonated with the Holistic Ovaries founder’s personality and brand proved to be a difficult and challenging task. Furthermore, no one on the team was particularly inspired by this color. We arrived at an initial proposal.

Desirability Testing

Spoiler alert: the results were not at all conclusive.

Desirability testing with potential users showed that the initial proposal fell short and was unconvincing. We received unflattering adjectives that did not represent the emotions we wanted to convey:

Flat

Boring

Serious

We spent a lot of time brainstorming the right combination of colors afterward.

We sent a second proposal to the client for her opinion, but she didn’t seem enthusiastic (and honestly, neither were we).

Iterating again and again after this second setback, we couldn’t find anything that seemed satisfactory and that we could proudly present.

Undaunted, we continued to iterate and finally arrived at a more captivating appearance by incorporating a gradient. We ultimately validated our design by conducting desirability tests once more. Our client also approved the final design. This led to the creation of a soft, feminine, positive, and friendly style.

High-Fidelity Prototype

After establishing our visual identity, we continued the development of our high-fidelity prototype, which we then presented to the Holistic Ovaries founder.

Homepage

Symptom tracker

Statistics on symptoms

Treatments Statistics

"Ask your question to an expert."

Education content

Key lessons learned and next steps

Challenges, Challenges, and More Challenges!

Here are some key lessons we learned from this process:

Working with a specific target audience was an enriching experience as it allowed us to interact with women from different parts of the world and recognize a significant lack of knowledge about PCOS and women’s health management.
It was also exciting to work on a topic about which we had no prior knowledge. This gave us the opportunity to truly listen to potential users of the application.

To move forward, the next steps could include:

Implementing an “Online Community” feature that would allow women to initiate conversations and share their experiences.
Creating a feature that would allow users to search for doctors in their region who are experts in PCOS management.

Conclusion for this project

Happy to have worked on a project with such a strong mission!

Conclusion for Holistic Ovaries.

The project’s goal was to assist the Holistic Ovaries founder in creating the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for a mobile application dedicated to helping women suffering from PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) symptoms. We had two main objectives in this project:

Help her understand and identify the essential features for the MVP of her application.
Assist her in redefining a visual identity to differentiate her from the competition.

By using the Design Thinking methodology, we provided her with a fresh perspective on her target audience and their main frustrations. The MVP will serve as a solid foundation for presenting her project to developers.

Personal Conclusion

From a personal perspective, I enjoyed working on a project with such a strong mission. It was something I truly cared about. This project reinforced my belief that women’s health is not yet well-addressed. This aspect struck me particularly during the interview process with women suffering from PCOS. Moreover, I found it interesting to work on a relatively unexplored niche market that is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. This allowed me to fully focus, without any pre-existing biases or prior knowledge of the topic, on the challenges that users may face.