Before starting any creative development, extensive research is conducted to analyse the market, competitors, and target audience. This process helps uncover key opportunities for the design solution. Additionally, exploring the work of other designers sparks inspiration and lays a strong foundation for creative thinking.

Market Research

Background research

The research focused on two key areas: current menstruation education provisions and the role parents play in this education.

Menstruation App Market

This situational analysis uses the PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) framework to examine the macro-environmental factors impacting the menstrual health app industry.

Competitors

Although menstrual education apps for adolescents are a niche market, a SWOT analysis of leading platforms can reveal industry standards and gaps in features that the menstruation education app might address. Oky, Luna Teen Health and Period App, and Clue have been selected for this review because they are apps that successfully combine interactive learning with user-friendly interfaces.

Thematic Analysis of Customer Reviews (using Affinity Mapping)

As a sensitive topic that can evoke shame, interviews and surveys were deemed inappropriate for ‘uncovering user needs, wants and perspectives’ on menstruation education (Boks & Trondsen, 2022). Instead, these insights were gained by a Thematic Analysis using an inductive approach (OpenAI, 2026) and executed through affinity mapping (Figure 2). Verified customer reviews for the menstruation education books by Jessica Biel, Chella Quint, and Tara Costello were analysed to understand parental preferences.

The thematic analysis uncovered verified user needs and market gaps for the menstruation education app. Positive reviews highlighted features worth emulating, while negative feedback revealed gaps and ideas to help the menstruation education app stand out and better serve the target audience. The research highlighted what parents value most regarding educational content, delivery formats, co-learning approaches, and tone. 

The affinity map revealed a core challenge for the app: balancing the comprehensive information parents need with the engaging visuals children expect. Parents want friendly and colourful anatomical visuals to complement detailed explanations. The affinity map also highlighted undeniable trends. While parents of younger children (ages 7–9) found the current content of books appropriate, parents of older children (ages 10–11) requested more detailed information. To resolve this issue, the menstruation education app can implement an age-level toggle, allowing parents to customise the level of detailed information based on the child’s development.

Based on the thematic analysis, the child and parent personas have been refined to better reflect real user needs. By nurturing empathy, the personas will guide the design and development process to ensure user needs take centre stage.

Inspirational Designs

Children’s menstruation education books

This project draws inspiration from the children’s menstruation education books written by Jessica Biel, Chella Quint, and Tara Costello. These texts were selected because they are among the few gender-inclusive resources available for younger audiences. To evaluate them, Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott’s ‘Interaction Theory’ (2001) provided a robust framework for conducting a thorough multimodal analysis.

Artist

Bedtime Math App