Wendy Xiuwen Chen
 UX designer at BBC, based in London, UK
 CV Email

Empowering Better Menstrual Sleep

year 2019
why Coursework with Ventrethree design studio and Dreem
type UX Research, Experience Design, VR story telling
Team Wan, Jordy, Partrick, Wendy

Brief

We aim to develop a product, service, interface, game, programme or physical space that focuses attention on the active outcome of sleep. This project is in collaboration with Venturethree and Dreem.

Our design proposal

An exhibition to increase the awareness around menstrual sleep.

 Integrating menstrual sleep elements in the existing Dreem product ecosystem.


Final design 





Part 1: An exhibition to increase the awareness around menstrual sleep



It tells the story of one night and the day after in the life of a menstruating woman using interactive storyboards and a VR experience. The aim is to create an understanding and conversation around the subject of menstrual sleep for viewers who don’t have this experience.

Pop-Up Book Illustration Details


VR prototype visual

Part 2: Integrating menstrual sleep elements in the existing Dreem product ecosystem.

Presentation

Design process

Initial research

During this stage, we did the sleep observations and exploring people’s opinion on sleep on a broader level than just see it as an individual activity. We asked participants to imagine how the world and human body might look like if we no longer needed to sleep. Interestingly, despite the fictional condition of no longer need to sleep, most people had a fair dystopia outlook on both matters.

Sleep Observation
Light on for the recording which disturbed our sleep.
Pre-bed habit, eg. play with phone
Menstrual sleep

Site Interviews
Many participants felt the body would become fitter and stronger due to more activity and burning more calories regularly throughout the 24 hours. It is interesting to see how people think our rest is connected to our bodies' physicality. Our eyes may enlarge due to adapting to the darker lighting conditions. And participants also felt our life expectancy would be much shorter because of the extra energy being exerted, which resulted in participants even thinking we might be happier in cases. 

These findings allowed us to explore the human body in a way that we felt is not commonly discussed, letting participants run wild with how they thought to sleep, and the body is essential and connected.

“We are all in the same bloody boat.”


Interviews


We conducted some interviews with 5 participants, and they all mentioned their sleep could be affected by menstruation in certain degrees. For example, a painkiller and comfortable clothing are significant factors in helping sleep during menstruation. In addition to the interview, we also invited participants to help us to do their menstrual sleep dairies.

We also found participants didn’t find the idea of sharing their menstruation experience with other women helpful. However, they found sharing with their male friends or others more impactful to understand how drastically menstruation affects not just sleeping but also many avenues of life.


Mapping menstruation experience 


Journey map