Designing Menstrual Technologies with Adolescents

Document Title

Designing Menstrual Technologies with Adolescents

Document Information

• Subject Areas: Women's hygiene and health, interaction design, participatory design
• Keywords: menstrual health, soma design, feminist HCI, participatory design, shape-changing technologies

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Adolescents during their menarche may face restrictions in activities due to bodily changes and societal biases, potentially impacting their participation in sports.
  • Current designs and technologies lack sufficient attention to adolescent girls' menstrual health, especially in providing diverse technological support for menstrual experiences.
  • Existing menstrual management technologies often focus on prediction and control, lacking deeper and more intimate interactions with the body.
  • There is a lack of practical exploration on how to involve adolescent girls in the design process of menstrual health technologies.

• Significance:

  • Positive early menstrual experiences play a crucial role in shaping menstrual health throughout life.
  • Redefining menstrual health as a social and embodied experience has the potential to challenge societal negative biases toward menstruation.
  • Menstrual health issues directly or indirectly affect adolescent girls' physical and mental well-being and their social participation.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Investigating how design can support adolescents in enhancing self-awareness and body literacy in menstrual education and management.
  • Unlike traditional menstrual products such as sanitary pads and apps, this study aims to explore menstrual technologies that integrate mind and body.
  • By combining feminist HCI approaches and soma design, the study seeks to foster societal dialogue and new technological paradigms around menstrual health.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  • Utilizing Participatory Soma Design methods to study adolescent girls' menstrual health through workshops that collaboratively explore menstrual technologies with the target group.
  • Designing an open prototype toolkit—Menarche Bits, which includes shape-changing actuators and heating pads to help participants explore design through sensory and technological interactions.

• Innovative Aspects:

  • Introducing a new soma design model that emphasizes guiding technological design through bodily sensations and movements.
  • For the first time, directly involving adolescent girls in designing technologies centered on their menstrual experiences.
  • Viewing menstruation not as a "problem" to be solved but as an opportunity to promote acceptance and attention to bodily sensations through technology.

• Implementation Steps:

  1. Recruit Participants: Targeting adolescent girls aged 16–18, prioritizing athletes, with the requirement of having menstrual experience.
  2. Organize Workshops: Including menstrual knowledge introduction, soma exercises (e.g., Feldenkrais sessions), toolkit exploration, and concept generation activities.
  3. Use Prototype Toolkit: Guiding participants to explore and design menstrual technologies using Menarche Bits, enabling direct interaction with their bodies.
  4. Prototype Development: Participants create personalized design solutions based on their menstrual experiences and develop initial product prototypes.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Results:

  • Five menstrual technology concepts designed by participants, including a breath-regulating garment "Calm-inator" for emotional relief, and wearable technologies like U-Formen and Korven that use heating and shape-changing to alleviate menstrual cramps.
  • Multiple designs emphasized modularity, body conformity, and integrated functionalities (e.g., heating and shape-changing) to address diverse menstrual experiences.
  • Participants gained deeper understanding of body literacy—the ability to perceive and manage one's own body.

• Comparison and Advantages:

  • Compared to current data-driven menstrual management technologies, the new approach supports interaction designs more closely aligned with bodily sensations and everyday life.
  • Encourages participants to shift from cultural spaces of menstrual shame to active exploration, using technology to educate through embodied experiences.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Workshop environments were described as comfortable, safe, and creative; participants exhibited positive attitudes and built trust.
  • Feedback highlighted the diversity of menstrual experiences, such as emotional fluctuations and cramps in different areas, with each participant designing solutions tailored to their individual needs.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Participants recruited were primarily healthy cisgender adolescent girls, excluding experiences of transgender, non-binary, or disabled individuals.
  • Future research needs to focus on these underrepresented groups to expand the applicability of the methods.
  • The next steps involve further development of high-fidelity prototypes and long-term usage evaluations, exploring the potential application of menstrual technologies in educational contexts.