Lioness

Timeline

Oct 2020 - Mar 2021

Context

Part-time internship with Lioness Health

Contribution

UX research, UX / UI Design, Product Strategy

Project Overview

Passionate about women's health and sexual wellness, I was thrilled to join the Lioness team as their only UX / UI designer in a part-time role. "Lioness is the first and only smart vibrator and app that lets you see & improve your orgasms." As they began to think about the 2.0 version of the Lioness mobile app, they asked me to learn more about their users' needs and apply those insights to a new and improved user journey and experience. I conducted UX interviews with Lioness users, synthesized and presented my insights, and facilitated team workshops with to collaborate on a strategy for the next version of the app. I created user flows and storyboards, ideated new features with input from the lead engineer, and devised a project timeline for the new strategy's implementation.

01 Design Challenge

Create an user journey experience, complete with a guidebook and wireframes, for the new Lioness V2.0 app with the objective of having Lioness users:

Return to the Lioness app to upload new sessions and indicate the orgasm
Add tags, and star ratings
Opt-in to the Research Platform and join studies
Screenshot moments that is shareable with friends & social media

02UX Interviews

I created a field guide for interviews and spoke with 5 users, hoping to learn:

What users are hoping to accomplish by using the app.
User expectations for personal progress.

03Synthesis: UX Interviews

I went through sketches and quotes from the interviews I conducted, organizing them into groups until I was able to extract general themes. One particularly illuminating interview was with a sexologist / sex therapist.

04feedback survey

I crafted a questionnaire relating to themes from my UX interviews. I received responses from 200 Lioness users in total, and organized quotes into categories based on theme.

05 From needs to design requirements

Need:

Users' expectations are not lining up with the app's current capabilities. Users are in the dark about the type of data collected, and how to get the clearest data.

Solution:

Add a comprehensive onboarding process with education about the technology and more guidance.

Need:

The current app offers the same experience each time, and the burden of experimentation and learning is disproportionately placed on the user. Lioness users need to see their personal growth and progress over time.

Solution:

Create a user journey that allows users to make progress and visualize it. Include goal-setting and gamification elements.

Need:

While the brand is rooted in a "nerdy" and experimental approach to sexual wellness, the app relies too heavily on graphs and numbers. Users are missing some handholding when it comes to interpreting their data and extracting meaning.

Solution:

Build out more extensive data tracking and insights: help users find patterns and be more descriptive.

06Design goal

All of the solutions were aimed at meeting a specific design goal...

Build a foundation on which the Lioness universe can continue to grow to offer new experiences.

07Competitive analysis

I looked at how different apps including Clue and Sleep Cycle, focusing on how they communicate insights to their users and encourage progress. I highlighted key aspects of each app to present to the Lioness engineering team. Other apps I analyzed included health-tracking apps, sexual wellness apps, and mobile games.

08Lioness user journey mapping

Based on the new app requirements, I began mapping out a new architecture for the app. It included:

A new, more descriptive onboarding process.
Initial tutorials about the technology and how to record a session
New features (including the baseline session).
Levels of achievement that unlock new information and experiences.

One of the new and central features I developed was the "baseline session." This is a user-designated point of reference, a control experiment to which they can compare other sessions in the future.

09Storyboarding key screens

I created sketches / low-fi wireframes of key app screens to show all of the elements of the new app journey and architecture.

10Final recommendations & Learnings

At the end of my time with Lioness, I presented a strategy and a product timeline for how to implement the new app architecture and features.

During this project, I learned how important it is to discuss technical limitations and work with them, not against. In our case they were related to sensors, data analysis, and accuracy. Learning that there was a disconnect between user expectations about the product's capabilities and what it could actually do, we hit a turning point. I helped keep the team focused on how to make the new experience as rich and illuminating as possible by understanding where the gaps lie and filling them in using the design strategies we agreed on. In effect, the app will continue to help users learn and make progress as advancements from the engineering team make this easier, smarter, and more automated.