Creating a Gender Journey app

There is no app in the current market to help individuals figure out their best path to experiment with their gender easily. To change their appearance can be costly or even detrimental to their health. We teamed up with colleagues at the U of M to make this an app for mental health and change lives.

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Client
University of Minnesota
Timeframe
1.5 months
Service
App Design
Tools Used
  • Figma
  • Illustrator

Project Overview

A group of physiologists that work at the University of Minnesota psychology graduate program needed a prototype to present to stakeholders to get funding for a therapy app. This app would allow patients and clients to experiment with their visual identity to feel more comfortable in their own skin. In their sessions visual augmentation helped immensely to help their clients work through transitioning or experimenting with that they might look as another gender. This group of psychologist had little knowledge of phone apps and technology in general. These professionals also needed help branding and creating a cohesive look for this proposed app. Since this was a very sensitive subject, we also had to keep security and logins in mind. A single ipad may be used in one office for multiple patients.

Goals:
‍Our goal was to create a few user flows so that the U of M group could easily show the basics of an app for a physiologist could use this in a session with a person experimenting with their identity. It needed to be used for realistic body augmentation as well as a learning and teaching tool for patients. This app also needed to be accessed by many clients on a single device. The user needed a single place to save images and document their journey experimenting with their gender journey.
Requirements
  1. Concept prototype to present general screens to stakeholders
  2. Easy to set up multiple accounts/ logins for same device
  3. AR augmentation for face and body
  4. Branding to reflect apps goals
  5. AR technology ranges needed to be accounted for
  6. Notes section
  7. Calendar/ dates for progress or milestones
  8. Resources page
  9. Multiple journeys saved
  10. Brand identity guidlines

Process

Research and question sessions kicked off the project. We dove deep into what they wanted in the app as well as what typically happened in their therapy sessions with patients. The design team conducted a stakeholder interview with requirements & constraints gathering. Persona building and Journey mapping were also implemented to better understand expectations.

Internal Kickoff Started with Mission Statement and Journey Map with Users in Mind

Next were wires to identify the MVP. We wanted to make sure we had general screens and user flows to tell the story of how this would be used in sessions. Once wires were approved with content, we moved onto prototyping high fidelity design mockups.

User Flow and Lo-Fi Wires for Self Imager Portion of App

Finally we ended with presenting two branding options. The chosen brand identity was applied to the high fidelity prototype. The working prototype link was handed off for them to present to stakeholders.

Final Product/ Solution

The final product was mobile first designs along with accompanying ipad screens for responsive design. Since this would be used on phones first, that was our top priority. Screens included the following flows:

  • Initial login with multiple users with secure pin
  • Multiple journeys for a single user
  • Milestones screensNew journey creation
  • Visualizer for face/ body
  • Resources page
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Insights/ Benefits

This app is unique by utilizing AR in a way that can help people experimenting with their genders. This way people can see what they might look like without having to get surgery. This app can also help even if someone is just experimenting with different types of clothes, makeup, or facial hair without changing their real appearance. This app also helps by providing necessary and easily accessible resources for someone who would like to know more about a gender transition process. This app is a stepping stone and non committal way to experiment or document their gender journey in a safe environment.

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