Alex (Sex-Ed)
A free and inclusive sex-education platform for Millennials and Gen-Z
Year
2022
Duration
3 weeks
Context
Bootcamp Project
Role
Single Product Designer, did it all.
Tools
Figma, Notion, Miro, Illustrator
The challenge
Sex education today is still a taboo all over the world. The educational offer on this subject is almost scarce in most countries, and it is even becoming illegal.
Among the young population, there is a lack of knowledge about many topics related to emotions, interpersonal relationships and sexually transmitted infections among others. Many of these people do not know how to access this type of information, or simply do not have access to it. There are currently very few reliable, inclusive and centralized resources on the Internet and also there are some physical resources that are not economically accessible to everybody (doctor appointments, sessions with therapists...).
That is why the objective of this project is to find a way to educate people and let them access to reliable sex-related information.
Empathise
Basing the project in my own experiences as a QPOC woman with Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), would not have been real and fair. For that reason, I needed to gather as much information possible about sexual education in young people.
In the first phase of the research, I collected global data in order to understand the magnitude of the case study, but finally I focused the project on the Spanish population.
Ideate
For the ideation phase, I started with some exercises, to find relevant and also original ideas that could be interesting and easy to implement in the MVP, and after that I could define the value proposition:
Define
After analysing all the insights, and in order to start defining the concept, I ran a 'jobs to be done' exercise (among other exercises), aiming to delve deeper into what Zoomers and Millennials actually want:
Jobs to be done
I want to...
...know where to go, what to do, and where to find more reliable and complete information about my problem
So I can...
...feel calmer, safer and accompanied
When...
...being diagnosed with an STI
I want to...
...find reliable and centralised information
So I can...
...learn with the confidence that it is a trustworthy source
When...
...discovering sex-related issues
I want to...
...find a fast and professional solution
So I can...
....solve my problem without wasting a lot of time
When...
...needing help with a sex-healthcare issue
Prototype
Wireframes
After having defined the main functionalities, I began to draft in paper some sketches to organize the screens that I would create:
Sketches for inspiration
This helped me to start prototyping some mid-fidelity wireframes, after testing the first version:
Link to Figma
Task flow
To better understand the entire product experience, I created a task flow. This is a diagram that represents the user journey of our person visiting the website and interacting with it.
With these transcriptions, I could easily see some patterns on the answers of the interviewees to convert it into insights:
Research Questions
We started the research with some questions related to Technology, Business & Market and Users:
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Who are the competitors? Are they inclusive? Do they offer free access to information?
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Do Millennials and Gen Z have access to private healthcare?
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Is there any situation when Millennials and Gen Z wanted an urgent solution/feedback about a sex issue?
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Do Millennials and Gen Z have any barrier when looking for information? Lack of LGBT+ related content, disabilities, religion...
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What are the things millennials and Gen Z value the most when looking for information about a sexual issue?
Main Research Questions
Initial Hypothesis
A lot of young people don't have access to private healthcare and have lack of knowledge about sex-health, because it is not well taught in schools and also, because there are no centralized resources about it.
Market Research
When conducting market research, it was important to clarify what sexual education meant and what topics it covered, since many people are not aware that this topic goes beyond all the body-related issues. There are important things that are not taken into account, such as interpersonal relationships, mental health, beliefs, myths, self-esteem, violence... All this has to do with sexual health.
I only needed to see the comments section of a sexuality expert video on Youtube to realize how sex is still a taboo in many cultures:
With all this information, I began to study the direct and indirect competitors and I could see that there is very little centralized information for this specific target and that what currently exists is not fully inclusive. You can see it in the benchmarking:
Therefore, from this desk research, I could conclude three things:
Later, I could corroborate the impact with statistics:
User Research: Interviews
I interviewed 4 people from ages (20 to 29) to understand if they were aware of sex-related issues, their interest on it, and their experiences.
Interviewing Diego Fuster (26 yo), one of our users
And gathered all the transcriptions in Notion in order to understand their behaviour, frustrations, goals, habits, motivations and needs:
User Research: Surveys
And also got some insights from the 142 filled surveys that Zoomers and Millennials completed:
Conclusion
After testing, I was able to verify that this platform would be widely accepted among young people, since currently there are hardly any centralized platforms that provide free information and advice on sexual health.
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Designing a specific chat forum where people can talk and comment on the exposed sexual health issues.
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Adding a section of 'fake viral news'.
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Investigating the acceptance of an anonymous mailbox for sexual violence complaints.
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Creating a social media marketing strategy.
Next Steps
Test
I could test the platform via videocall with 4 diverse Zoomers and Millennials. To do this testing, I shared them the Figma prototype.
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Validate the usability of the product.
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Confirm if the navigation is understandable.
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Corroborate the acceptance of the product.
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Verify the taxonomy of the categories.
Testing goals
What did I change after all the received feedback?
FIX #1
Almost all the users that did the testing understood the searchbar but didn't understand that they were able to ask a question to a healthcare professional, so I changed the name of that section on the menu and also added a button on the frontpage in order to make it accessible.
BEFORE
AFTER
FIX #2
Users didn't understand what were the articles and also the categories, so I added specific tags for a better understanding.
BEFORE
AFTER
FIX #3
The classification of the articles by categories on the cards were a little confusing, so I made them smaller to gave them less importance.
BEFORE
AFTER
FIX #4
To ensure a correct user experience, I had to validate and make changes on the taxonomy of the menu:
BEFORE
AFTER
I wonder...
🤔 How Millennials and Gen-Z access to sex related information?
🚧 Do they have any barrier to access to it?
🚑 Have they ever experience any 'special' situation related to sexual health?
🤓 Do Zoomers and Millennials think they know enough about sex-ed?
User Interface
UI Inspiration
Well, we arrived to my favourite part! - I wanted to achieve a 'trendy' and 'colourful' UI, without being too 'childish', as one of our main targets were the Millennials. So I started looking in some websites to get inspired:
UI inspiration
Branding
'Alex (Sex-Ed)' is the name of the platform. As the theme of the project was quite intimate, I wanted to 'humanize' it in a way, so I looked for a neutral name in order to be more inclusive.
Logo design brainstorming
Design System
Applying UI
Link to Figma
MVP Functionalities
A mailbox to send questions/doubts to healthcare professionals
An inclusive and free sex-education database
Drop-shipping shop online to monetise the platform
A simple chat to talk with new friends and healthcare professionals
Project Road Map
Empathise
-
Desk Research
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Interviews
-
Surveys
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Data analysis
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Clustering insights
-
Proto-Persona
Define
Problem Statement
Jobs to be done
Ideate
Brainstorming sessions (HMW, How Now Wow!...)
Storyboard
Value Proposition
Prototype
Task flow
Low fidelity wireframes
HF Wireframes
UI Trend Research
Branding
Defining Design System
Mockups
Applying UI
Test
Usability Testing
Next steps
The Solution
Value Proposition
Our service provides a trustful inclusive free sex-ed database for Millenials and Gen Z, who want to learn and discover everything related to sex healthcare, while meeting new people and staying in contact with healthcare professionals without any charge.
