Designing User Experience for 4Play
By: Tariq Cranston
Tags: Hackathons, UX Design, Figma, Business Strategy, User Experience Design

User Research and Thought Process

Key Findings and Concerns:

99% would want to know the sexual health of their partner 78% thought people are not comfortable talking about sexual health 72% were sexually active 59% said they had been tested

We mainly surveyed people between the ages of 18–25 years old because they are the most sexually active and are our target audience.

Design Thinking and Implementation

Tools: Figma

Features:

Something we had to consider when making the application was to observe HIPAA laws. As long as users provide consent to the use of this information and the data is stored within the laws HIPAA the application will be protected.

2. We wanted to provide a way for users to only exchange information but to also educate themselves on various topics concerning sex education. Thus, the home page was dedicated to the feature to act as a central hub of knowledge for users to explore.

3. We also wanted to provide users with a way to see the nearest resources such as clinics, planned parenthood, STD testing centers, as well as other locations. With this feature, they would also be able to see what services they offer.

Main Feature:

The main feature of the application is to allow the discrete exchange of sexual information provided by a testing center that the user connects to the app, in such a way that protects the privacy of each individual in the exchange while encouraging communication. The information that is exchanged is a discrete representation of the most recent results of each individual involved. It does not say what specifically they tested positive or negative for. The app only displays a “pause” or “play” symbol based on the results and then encourages open communication. A “play” symbol is displayed when there’s no immediate cause for concern, meanwhile, a “pause” symbol is displayed when there might be some cause for concern based on the individual’s test results. This feature was developed as a solution to an issue of privacy that was brought up by our focus group at the hackathon. It is also worth mentioning that the exchange requires mutual consent; meaning that both parties involved are required to agree to the exchange of their information.

Figma Prototype:

Tradeoff Analysis

In regards to the main feature, many solutions were discussed but we ultimately decided that this was the most discrete way we could think of protecting the user’s privacy within the application at the time. We intended to mitigate the issue as much as possible. We thought of using voice recordings, screenshots of the other person’s results, amongst other options that were ultimately eliminated.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we did not get sufficient enough time within the constraints of the hackathon to completely code the actual mobile application because we had a lot to work on in regards to research as well as the feasibility of such an application given the sensitive information that it will be exchanging and the purpose it serves. Also considering that I was the only person on the team capable of doing UX design and software development, we decided to focus on the business plan and feasibility of the application.