This creative journey outlines a structured, iterative process designed to turn complex problems into meaningful visual solutions. Driven by rigorous market and demographic research, the project transitions from strategic analysis into hands-on creative exploration. 

Initial Ideation

The ideation phase begins by translating insights into raw sketches, conceptual mind maps, and visual mood boards. This exploratory stage allows the exploration of a wide array of concepts before narrowing the focus to the most viable directions.

Creative Experimentation

The strongest concepts were advanced through iterative sketching and creative exploration. These iterations evaluated the practical application of four design frameworks: the principle of the derivative idea, the principle of the symbiotic idea, the principle of reversal and the principle of chance.

Mid-Stage Experimentation

Building on the strongest design ideas, a series of updated visuals were created to communicate the core messages efficiently. Various stylistic approaches were used to demonstrate alternative ways of visualisation. 

Experimentation through Challenging Assumptions

An exploratory brainstorm identified the following five core assumptions/orthodoxies to be challenged:

• Use content cards in grouped containers to make information scannable
• Use a bottom navigation bar as the main hub for switching between app sections
• Use sans-serif typefaces to project a modern, friendly, and child-friendly tone
• The logo should be monochromatic (red) to normalise the perception of menstrual blood
• An illustrative visual style is necessary to engage and appeal to children

Focussed Experimentation

The space-theme concept was chosen to progress the heyRed app. This approach removes the stigma of a traditionally taboo topic, successfully transforming menstruation education into a fun, approachable and scientific adventure for the target audience. Using Adobe Illustrator, the welcome screen, the homepage and its corresponding sub-screen were digitised. The homepage and its sub-screen offer a range of design choices that require further investigation such as composition, layout, colour palette and typography. 

The results and comparisons from the experimentation process were consolidated into the below table:

Applying the Conclusions

The conclusions of the experiments were applied to the login screen, homepage and the sub-screen. Although the dark colours create a high colour contrast for the homepage, it makes they make the homepage feel uninviting and overly dark for the audience.

Building the final designs

Preference testing was conducted using Microsoft Forms. Although only 10 participants were originally recruited, snowball sampling through word-of-mouth recommendations expanded the sample size to 18. Each participant answered six preference questions, followed by open-ended prompts to capture the reasoning behind their choices. Participants were asked to choose their preferred logo, colour palette, gender language style, and page layouts (welcome and home screens). The results of their choices have been applied to the final screen designs.