Not entirely safe for work.
TAlking to women about sexual health
In the fall of 2015, Celine Thibault, David Bill and I worked on an ethnographic research project focused on the sexual health of low income women. We spoke to 16 different women from all walks of life: nurses, sex educators, waitresses, strippers, artists, christians, teenagers, and mothers. Everyone's experience with sex and sexuality is deeply personal. I'm grateful to all of the folks who shared their stories with us.
Synthesis
Celine and I pouring through interview transcripts to find patterns.
Photo by David Bill.
Our Objectives
- To understand a woman’s relationship with sex and sexual health.
- To understand each woman’s experiences with sex education and how those experiences build upon each other, and frames her exploration of her personal sexual education.
What we learned
We learned we needed to address the following aspects of sexual health moving forward:
Access
The most essential thing to taking ownership of one's own sexual health is access to information. Most women we talked to learned about sex from friends, the internet, and through their own experience. Those ways of learning are valid, but can fall short of fact.
Exploration
Often, women feel pressured to conform to expectations. Security and empowerment come from feeling free to explore and understand your own sexuality.
Vulnerability
There's all kinds of emotion wrapped up in sexuality, but shame is a huge barrier to being open and honest with yourself and your partners. It's often hardest for women to be vulnerable about their sexuality with male partners.
Taking our project to ATX Hack For Change
Celine and I took this project to ATX Hack for Change. We were blown away by how many people wanted to help with our project and the kind of ideas and discussions that came up in just a few days time.
We focused on women in our research, but are very aware that everyone can use sex education. We want to build something inclusive that teaches both kids (and parents) of all genders how to talk about bodies and sex in age appropriate ways. Using what we learned in our research we are creating a conversational tool for parents to invite their kids to the “sexual health” table in a fun, playful way. We believe our design must teach kids to:
- respect their own bodies, thoughts, desires, and feelings
- listen and empathize with other people's feelings
- understand consent and how that applies to their bodies and emotions.
Delivering our pitch
Our Team
Images of our team working through the weekend.
Meg McLaughlin: Co-Lead, UX Researcher, UX Design, Illustration
Céline Thibault: Co-Lead, UX Researcher, UX Designer, Content
Christina Davis: Front End Dev, UX Design, Branding
Nadia Tamez: Content Strategy, Front End Dev, UX Design
Shelby Babb: Backend Dev, Information Architecture, Documentation
Carly Castle: Game Design, Developer
Amy Schweiss: Product Strategy, Content Strategy, Front End Dev
Mary: ‘Yes, and’, Product Strategy, Content
André Korenak: Game Design & Developer Support
(Y'all, that's a huge team of talented people.)
View all the devs work: https://github.com/smaashthemac/SexTalk
Making an app that grows with you
We came up with an idea for a web app that grows with kids and families as they age. To illustrate this, we built and showcased a puzzle aimed at pre-K, kindergarteners to learn about their body parts. Kids start with the basics and build on their knowledge through other interactive experiences as they grow.
We brainstormed to talk about the most important aspects of sexual health, and talked about the knowledge kids and parents would need to feel comfortable with each topic. Dads may not be naturally comfortable talking to their daughters about periods, but that discomfort doesn't really help anyone. If we can make something playful, flexible, and valuable, we can help kids feel confident and in control of their bodies throughout their lives.
Our team created a homepage, and a puzzle for kids that we used in our pitch. Watch a demo of our game:
It shows anatomically correct illustrations of a boy and girl (outside + inside) that snap into place.
What's next?
The reception for our idea was really wonderful and affirming that there is a real need for products like this in the world. I think I'll keep working in this space whenever I'm able. Relationships, health, and well-being are topics I could talk about forever.
I talked to KVUE about our desire to continue the project. I'd love to partner with a community health professional to make something like "Glowing Up" a reality. Reach out if that might be you!
