Original Quantitative Research
Thematic Analysis of Questionnaire
Ideation Sketching
The Problem
25% of UK women don't understand where they are on their menstrual cycle. With most apps of this type focusing on fertility and pregnancy there is a missed opportunity to help people track another aspect of having a menstrual cycle - performance.
UX Tools and Techniques Used
• Analytics
• Desk and Original Research
• Empathy Mapping
• Questionnaires
• Sketching
• Thematic Analysis
• UI Design
• Desk and Original Research
• Empathy Mapping
• Questionnaires
• Sketching
• Thematic Analysis
• UI Design
Soft skills:
• Communication Skills
THE Research
Anecdotal reporting suggests that taboo and secrecy around periods results in 25% of UK women not understanding how their menstrual cycle works. Being connected to emotional and physical wellbeing and performance, the ability of an individual to better tracking the distinct stages of they own menstrual cycle could be useful to maximise performance. However, current devices and apps that attempt to track menstrual cycles are mostly concerned with fertility and pregnancy.
A research project was developed in collaboration with Dr Sunny Bains of University College London to confirm this anecdotal reporting. A questionnaire was created to explore the subject in greater detail, specifically detailing women's understanding of the correlation between the stage of a menstrual cycle with mood and performance.
Quantitative questions gathered yes/no responses to questions such as "If your productivity, performance or focus is lower than usual, do you calculate where you are on your menstrual cycle and consider that as a possible cause?", and to gather qualitative information an open question at the end asked "From your own experience, what advice would you give to a younger sister/daughter/friend about managing their menstrual cycle?".
The questionnaire was first circulated to a sample group, including a UCL Student Union Diversity Officer, to ensure that the question wording was minimally intrusive, inclusive and respectful, then it was shared as an open post on Facebook. Within one week there were 162 responses, with respondents aged 18 to 55 (Mean 33, Median 33). 70% of respondents answered the open question.
Quantitative Data Responses
The key findings from the quantitative data was:
• On average, 21% of women don't have even a general idea of where they are on their menstrual cycle. Between the ages 21 to 25 the figure almost doubles to 41%.
• 69% of women correlate their mood to their menstrual cycle, but 66% don't correlate their performance to their menstrual cycle.
Thus, our data confirmed the anecdotal evidence, but showed that when the demographic spread was analysed younger women especially didn't track their menstrual cycle. Also, the data highlighted a lack of correlation between cycle and performance.
Qualitative Data Responses
The responses to the open question were thematically analysed, by writing down significant quotes on PostIt Notes and grouping them. Among the recurring themes were:
• The positive aspects of having a menstrual cycle is often overlooked (eg days of increased creativity and productivity).
• Tracking menstrual cycle is only useful if a cycle is regular, and current apps are bad at tracking irregular periods.
• Existing apps are fiddly to use and require considerable effort to add the data necessary for tracking (and the tracking is geared towards achieving or avoiding conception and not mood or performance prediction).
Google Forms questionnaire open question.
Photo of PostIt Notes when analysing themes.
Understanding User Needs
It is clear from the research that menstrual cycle contribution to mood is well understood, but the contribution to performance is less-so. It is also understood by many that the positive aspects of their menstrual cycle, such as days of increased creativity and productivity, are often overlooked. However, with such a large number of people who don't even have a general idea of where they are on their cycle (especially younger people), and current app-tracking fiddly and function-lacking, it seems that if technology could provide a solution to accurately, and more passively, track a menstrual cycle, being able to predict and schedule days of likely increased and deceased performance would be useful and welcome.
Technology Research
On researching medical and technology journals I discovered some medical research from University College Zurich in May 2017 that median pulse rate, measured by an accurate, wearable sensor, could be correlated with different phases of the menstrual cycle. In September 2017 Apple released an enhanced Watch sensor that could measure resting heart rate, giving us the tool to calculate a median pulse rate, and thus track menstrual phases - even irregular ones.
Medical research correlating pulse to menstrual cycle.
New Apple Watch heart rate sensor.
Ideation Sketching
Given that an Apple Watch could be the key, I researched what fitness and well-being apps are available and how they display data and advice. This led to an ideation session with Dr Bains on how a menstrual tracking Apple Watch App could work. These sketches are below:
Displaying stage of menstrual cycle.
Displaying effects and advice.
Calendar INTEGRATION
A further idea was based on how the information could be integrated into a calendar. Information about the current stage of the menstrual cycle - and predictions of how it may progress, could be displayed via a calendar plug-in. By toggling a button, an overlay would be displayed highlighting when periods of high creativity, lower energy etc are likely to happen. These labels would be user-configurable based on an individuals preferences.
Regular calendar.
Calendar with mood/performance information overlaid.
Thoughts and Next Steps
Our original user research suggests that although there is a wide range of opinion on the subject of menstrual cycles, people who have irregular periods would most benefit from accurate and predictive tracking. Within that group there are two main sub-groups:
1. Older women who actively track their cycle, are aware that it affects their mood and performance, and who actively try to schedule their life around it.
2. Younger women who don’t track their cycle, are unaware that it affects their mood and performance, so don’t schedule their life around it.
We would therefore like to run separate focus groups, to better understand both groups’ needs and see what similarities and differences there are, as multiple or personalised approaches may be required moving forward.
On Reflection (from 2023)
The research in the original article that inspired this project specifically referred to a "female" sample set, with no definition. Despite having co-ordinated my research with the UCLSU Diversity Office my social media post began with with "To my female friends...". It was subsequently shared by friends who used the more inclusive introduction "To my friends who menstruate...". With the benefit of 2023 hindsight I'd approach this entire project today more inclusively than I did in 2017. For example, a trans woman would not need to track ovulation, but tracking an emotional cycle would be useful. Today, Clue app currently offers non-gendered language and the exclusion of ovulation and pregnancy-related data to better suit trans users. The above suggested app features and calendar integration suggested would still be equally useful to a trans woman, with more inclusive language and personalisation.
END