Products for women

[charllejane]

Hi all,

I'm a third year Industrial Designer studying at Loughborough University and will be heading into my final year in October.

For my final major project I'd like to design a product in the 'FemTech' space - a product designed for women for periods of their life cycle such as puberty, pregnancy, post-pregnancy and menopause.

I would love to hear any issues or problems you have struggled with that I could possibly develop a solution for, and gaining real insight from real women will be immensely helpful for me, as I myself haven't gone through all of these stages yet.

It could be absolutely anything, even if there is something already there but could be made better, more intuitive, more accessible or more convenient. For example, moving a product into the 'at home' space so that women can use it within their own time and at their own discretion. Or as another example, I've been exploring the condition endometriosis and the possibility of developing a discreet and portable product women can use to help alleviate pain.

Any advice would be really helpful! Thanks all.

For work backpacks, try the Mia Tui Sydney backpack. I bought one (in the sale, not holding out much hope) and it fits me well even though I’m short, narrow shouldered and busty. And it’s durable and well designed.

Exactly what I meant when I said women’s stuff is twee - a star shaped zipper? Ugh.

Pockets on trousers!

My DD tends to buy clothes in the men's section and the swimming trunks she bought (to wear as shorts) had massive deep products where my jeans have one of those tiny condom sized pockets.

Pockets. Pockets pockets

Oh cross post

YY to

Seatbelts
Pockets
Backpacks

And of course all the medical stuff and everything else

The fact that so much stuff doesn't quite 'fit' ends up making you feel a bit uncomfortable without even realising it, a lot of the time. Then when you get something that does fit, you think, wow this is amazing! And realise how uncomfortable you were before.

The annoying thing is that IRL if you point these things out, the usual response from men and women is, you are doing it wrong etc

Public transport gets on my nerves when the handrails are too high to reach and actually hold onto. I'm 5'3 which is on the short side but hardly unusual! And of course kids use public transport as well... These things need to cater to more than just 'average man'.

While we’re on the subject of cars. Pedal extenders so I don’t have to sit so close to the steering wheel (and die if the airbag ever goes off). Also might mean a better view when going round corners. 27inch inside leg is no joke.

@OverZoomed

I absolutely agree, I really hadn't had enough insight on this beforehand but I think this could make for a great project. It's such a real problem, I'm surprised it hasn't really been touched on before!

@PositiveVibez
So sorry to hear that! Having known what one of my friends has gone through, I know how awful it can be for women. I really think there needs to be a product out there to help alleviate pain, otherwise it can be a more debilitating condition that some people realise. My friends endo is on the serious side, despite multiple surgeries now she struggles so much she barley leaves the house.

@BeetrootRocks
I'm also 5'3 so know exactly how you feel. It can get so frustrating when men who are blatantly much taller use the poles on the tube/buses, because I can't reach the handrails at all. I end up awkwardly shuffling my hand next to theirs or falling over

Thanks again ladies, all of this feedback is super helpful!

Sainsbury’s has menstrual cups
That must be a first. Good on them, at last.

“I had general anaesthetic for the birth of my first child and it took me two days to properly come round. I'm sure this is because dosages are designed and tested on men”

That’s really strange. When I had surgery, the anaesthesiologist checked my chart and did the dose by my weight, age and sex. He was a talkative doctor and so was telling me everything he did as he did it. I woke up right when expected and left hospital right on time. I think you just had a bad anaesthesiologist tbh.

Spacesuits for astronauts are all designed for men. No room for boobs or hips. The helmet sits too high so vision is not as good. Gloves are all for massive man hands/fingers. The torsos are too long, so the crotch area is too low and roomy hampering stride.

Interesting re spacesuits: the women who sewed them.

www.bbc.com/future/article/20191219-the-women-who-sewed-the-suits-for-the-space-race

Great suggestions from everyone and brilliant you are doing this CharlleJane. When you write up your project, will you mention that you posted here? I'd definitely add on extra marks for doing some consultation beforehand. Good luck!

Hey OP, great to see what you're considering for your project and that you're doing background research well in advance! Also great that you get to do a year in industry and have a great female CEO.

I'm adding my voice to the crowd saying that before going any further you really really need to read the Invisible Women book - there are so, so many issues raised that you'll be itching to do lots of them as projects! For what it's worth I did an Ergonomics masters degree 30 years ago - many of the issues raised in the book were issues at the time that I did that degree and it's really depressing that 30 years on, they're still big issues today. And likewise most of the issues raised on this thread were also things that we discussed in class - car design, back pack/bag design, even the anthropometric data of astronauts and pilots... (beware - autocorrect has a nasty habit of changing antropometric to anthropomorphic or anthropocentric - probably because so few people think about anthropometrics, let alone use it, despite it being so needed!).

If you end up doing a project that involves anthropometrics in any way it would be worth checking out a book by an old lecturer of mine - Bodyspace, by Steve Pheasant. Unfortunately he died young, so there were a couple of editions originally and having just looked to see if if's still around, seems that somebody updated it about 15 years ago so still out of date. That version is now crazy expensive if it's not in your uni library but the second edition can be picked up cheaply second hand and would still have interesting insights even if the actual datasets are old. Steve al;so wrote a book about applying ergonomics in healthcare (Ergonomics. work and health) - he got hospitalised for a long period of time so used it as a time to observe, learn and put all sorts of things into practice as well as work out best practices - again might be worth a quick look for historical background if you look at healthcare related issues or items

Around the time I was doing my degree, the army introduced an approach for all new equipment they needed called Manprint - which meant that whether they were sourcing big items like tanks or small things like a backpack, they had to consider the individual before purchasing. This had partly come about because of several major screw ups - things like creating fantastic little boats that were great for soldiers to sneak ashore - except they'd not through things through properly as the boat needed to be launched or beached by 5 people and it only held 4. Or the tank that had just specified a volume to be left empty for each individual soldier to sit in the tank - without putting any throught into minimum sizes for that volume to ensure that the soldier could fit into the space available let alone sit comfortably! I know this is old now and I have no idea if Manprint is still used but codifying some sort of approach to ensure that specific needs and requirements that women have are considered within the purchasing procedure for anything used in public - a Womanprint if you like.

On a personal note, I had a DVT after having ds2. It's still one of the biggest killers of women postnatally in the UK and was not seen as a serious issue when I had what I subsequently discovered were text book symptoms - I needed to go to the doctor's several times before getting a scan to confirm the problem and even once I had, it was tricky to get repeated blood tests and be told the correct drug dose (when you start it needs to be monitored daily - they weren't even using a postnatal protocol). It is also a massive killer for people that are in hospital for other operations. A bit like people are finally beginning to realise how serious sepsis is and how switf action need to be taken if there is any chance it could be an issue rather than waiting for confirmation as that takes too long. So some sort of product that could monitor for a dvt would be a great thing to look at that would benefit a lot of people.

@nettie434 I absolutely will! Everything posted here is very valuable insights which will help justify my reasons for developing my project. And I'm sure my tutors will also appreciate me talking to representative end-users.

@wibdib Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my thread in such depth!

I have invisible women on order, I'm really looking forward to reading it, I'm sure it will give me a lot more ideas. I don't think I'd get away with not reading it now, I'm sure you're the third person on this thread to suggest it! I'm pretty certain I've come across the Bodyspace book in my university library before now, If I do end up doing a project requiring anthropometric data I'm sure I'll refer back to that book, but thanks for including this, a great reminder! I'll have to have a further look into Manprint, I haven't heard of it before now, but it sounds very interesting.

Now, your paragraph on your experience with DVT really touched me. I had previously thought about doing a project in this area, but I don't think I was looking at it with quite the right mindset. I would love to talk to you more about this and your experience. I really think this could be a great area to focus on for my final year - and you're right, it could benefit a lot of people.

Would you mind going into further detail about how your treatment progressed once you were diagnosed, how you were monitored (I presume this was in a hospital environment), and anything else you can think of that could be helpful?

Thanks again @wibdib for taking the time to write such a thorough response, I really appreciate it! It's insights like yours that will help me develop a meaningful product for final year, that's grounded by real problems. So thank you!

I've got a couple of friends who suffer from endo, one severely and campaigns for better treatment/awareness etc. From posts know how horrendous it can be and has been in hospital several times for operations.
So anything that alleviates that pain is definitely a good idea as it's widespread and nobody really knows much about it.

Pockets on trousers!My DD tends to buy clothes in the men's section and the swimming trunks she bought (to wear as shorts) had massive deep products where my jeans have one of those tiny condom sized pockets

Yeah! WTF's that all about?! Sorry, just posted and then saw this lol.
Every item of women's clothes tends to have no pockets, skirts being offenders mostly (I like wearing skirts.)
Never any pockets!
Pockets would be brilliant.

Yeah! WTF's that all about?! Sorry, just posted and then saw this lol
Every item of women's clothes tends to have no pockets, skirts being offenders mostly
Never any pockets
Pockets would be brilliant

I think the no pockets thing is cos it would make our (womens) hips look big(ger)

I had to buy mens shorts for work because I carry so much stuff around with me I need the pocket space. And they cover more bum than womens but yeah pockets.
I seem to recall boden advertising pockets in some dresses. No idea if useful big pockets, but a step in the right direction.
You would think with today's materials and brains that pockets could be put in as standard, yet my mum wears a silly waistcoat at work with fake pockets, the mens waistcoat has only smallish pockets but they do function as intended. Just ridiculous.

Bigger branches of Boots have been selling mooncups for about 10 years, not sure about my local supermarket.