A UX/UI DESIGNER, with a background in statistics, consumer behavior, and fashion design.
Designed an all-in-one mobile app to talk about sex, sexuality, and relationships.
The challenge: You will be required to conduct user research to understand people’s relationship with well-being and develop an app focused on a topic related.
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My role: I wanted to develop an app focused on sexuality and discuss the topic in the format of a forum. It is a difficult topic for some people and most of us didn't have the proper sexual education during our previous years, so talking about it with others can help heal traumas and clarify some insecurities we have.
Overview
Timeline
Two weeks
2022
Industry
Wellness
Sexuality
My role
Solo UX/UI designer, but with partnership with another colleague during brainstorm
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Photoshop, Zoom
Deliverables
Market Research
Survey + Focus group
Persona
User testing
Clickable prototype
Research
(yeah, I did a lot of research for this one)
I talked with five women to understand how they deal with their sexuality, and what they would like to have in an app that is focused on it. Here are some of the insights:
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Challenges to do with my boyfriend, sex date ideas, playing with some sex dice.
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Shared quiz.
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Challenges to do with my friends, I can challenge my friends to do something with their boyfriends.
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Talking about sex, like problems you may have or questions with other girls, something like a Reddit.
Interviews
I also use the poll and questions on Instagram stories. Here are some insights:
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I would like to improve my perception of how things are said.
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Communicating what I didn’t like during sex.
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Maybe it can be related to the other’s opening as well. I tell stuff when I feel comfortable.
Pool
For the Survey, I had 17 participants, with an age range from 26 to 38, 10 female, 6 male, and 1 cisgender.
I wanted to understand sexual communication with a partner or previous partner. So, I used the Sexual Communication frequency scale and Dyadic Sexual Communication scale.
Survey
I did a focus group with my female Bootcamp colleagues, on Slack. I started with the question: What would you like to give yourself as a sexual wellbeing challenge/goal for the next week?
It was really interesting since we all know each other but not that well and they were all super open about their sexual desires. With this focus group, I could find some good insights about how to talk about sex with other women and how I could add this to my app.
Focus group
Theorethical validation
I also did research on Google Scholar to find statistical corroboration for the correlation between sex and wellness.
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This article found that a lack of sexual activity was associated with a higher risk of developing anxiety and depression during the covid lockdown.
Research Canvas
After the research, I organized the insights of it in a canvas and validated the idea of having an app with 3 parts, the partner, you, and friends, that I called the Squad.
Competitive analysis
After all this research I started looking for competitors. I found some interesting apps but as you can see on the image below, neither of them has the three options: partner, friends, and you.
The GAP
Looking into the competitors I found a gap in the market connected to my research.
Why do I need three apps to talk about sex with my partner and my friends and to learn about my sexuality if I can have one with all?
I present you....
Your space to talk about sex and sexuality
User persona
She would love to have an app where she can express herself sexually with her partner and friends and also read about sex and sexuality for her wellness.
Prototyping
The ideation process started with concept sketching of the gap I found during the research. The iteration testing was conducted with 15 testers between concept sketching, mid-fidelity, and high fidelity.
Lo-fi
On my lo-fi, I tested the idea of an Instagram-Reddit layout with stories and topics to read and discuss.
Since it had a format similar to what users already use in their daily life, the layout and user flow was well accepted during the user test.
Users pointed out some changes needed like:
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The size of the fonts was too small
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They didn't recognize the icon button (orgasm button)
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Too many steps to do a post
Mid-fi
The feedback I got after the user tests was very positive, requiring some small changes like:
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Some buttons were too small
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The spacing between components was too close
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Adjusting the onboarding content
Hi-fi
Features
Progress
The user can check the progress in the challenges and sexuality learnings.
She can check the weekly progress through the homepage or go to the Progress page to check the overall.
Inclusive design
The focus of this app was to be as inclusive as possible. I make options for different sexual orientations and possible disabilities for, in some cases, the app would make adjustments.
Modular
Pop-up
Apple watch
Here's the final prototype with the user tasks.
