Hormona
FOR ALL WOMEN
Hormona is a single resource where women can learn more about their hormonal health and their bodies. To narrow the scope within the timeframe of a class semester, we concentrated on the development of the “Hormone Imbalance Assessment”, which is a quiz that women can take to learn if they have a hormonal imbalance. Equipped with more insightful knowledge, women’s time with their OB-GYNs is more productive since they are able to ask necessary questions and have a more efficient dialogue with their doctor. Ultimately, Hormona helps women feel empowered to advocate for their health.
The concept of this project was created during my time as an Interaction Design graduate student at the University of North Texas in Spring of 2020.
You may view the clickable prototype here.
Project Type
Design Research
UI/UX Design
Services
User Interviews
Online Survey
Competitive Analysis
Personas
Wireframe/UI Layouts
Branding & Illustrations
Usability Testings
High-Fidelity Prototyping
Credit
Sheila Hoang
Zainab Lodi
MY STORY
A few years ago, my OB-GYN discovered that I have a hormonal disorder called polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). She didn’t give me much more information other than saying I had the “skinny type” of PCOS and prescribed me a few medications.
Weeks later, it suddenly occurred to me that there could be different types of PCOS. After a few minutes of research, I was sucked into a wormhole of information that my doctor didn’t share with me, like how birth control negatively affects PCOS. As frustrated as I was about not being given more information about my disorder, I realized that I also didn’t know the appropriate questions to ask then either.
Motivated to find a solution to help women feel more knowledgeable at their doctor visits, my partner and I created Hormona after hours of research and interviews.
INITIAL SURVEY
Following my hunch that many women have had the same frustrating experience as me, we decided to ask a few questions about women's thoughts and experiences with their doctor visits. We were able to gather 115 responses.
56.5%
of women surveyed switched OB-GYNs due to a negative experience
66.1%
of women do not trust their OB-GYN to exhaust all options when it comes to their health concerns
80%
of women would do their own research about their health before visiting their doctor
USER INTERVIEWS
We also interviewed 6 women and started the interview by asking their history and experience with birth control. The second half of the questions were about their experience with OB-GYNs and if they have done research prior to their visit. We learned that many of the women interviewed have felt frustrated when conversing with their doctors about their symptoms, especially when their symptoms are more emotional than physical.
THEY’RE NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY
“Often my complaints of pain are taken less seriously and they feel that their treatment is unrelated to anything emotional that I have going on. It’s a consistent problem.”
THEY DON’T FEEL HEARD
“I haven’t had one yet that I felt really comfortable with. It still kind of feels like, “put them on the pill and send them home.” It doesn’t feel like a women’s wellness place where I was taken care of and listened to.”
THEY DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH
“I read a book about how the pill was used as a Band-Aid a lot and I’ve been thinking about stopping after being on it for 10 plus years. I just educated myself to where the pill wasn’t a one size fit all answer.”
We know that we can't control the empathy we receive from our healthcare providers, but we can change the way the conversation unfolds by providing clear and concise information on what we need from them.
USER PERSONAS
Our user personas were created after reviewing our survey research and conducting our initial interviews. We were able to identify various demographics that would simultaneously represent a variety of women and also highlight the unifying struggle they are all experiencing.
USABILITY TESTING
We conducted a few rounds of usability testing with users to get feedback on the homepage, the hormone assessment, and the results page.
One of the main takeaways of our testing was that users want to feel like the website is credible enough for them to share personal information about their health through an online assessment. They also wanted to be able to send their results either to their email or text message so that they can easily pull up their results at the doctor’s office.
As a result, we added a “Panel of Experts” on the homepage and designed the result page for the mobile version.
VISUAL DESIGN
We knew from the beginning that we wanted the color scheme to be warm, welcoming, and not overly pink. We chose earthy tones—golden yellow, forest green, soft blue—that are more calming and easy on the eyes.
Since the quiz and results page was our main focus, we designed the quiz layout to be simple and to the point, using the earthy color scheme of the website. Our goal was to create a visual aesthetic that was approachable and clear, so that any woman of any age would feel comfortable to get the information that they need.
Feel free to click through our high fidelity prototype here.
