Service Design &
Woman sexual empowerment
Wait, what?
How service design, supported by a user-centered perspective and through qualitative research, can be used to design solutions that help fight against taboos on women’s sexuality, promoting sexual empowerment
About the project
Title: Kora - Beyond the Script
My role: Master thesis
Length: 6 months
Company: Politecnico di Milano
Many women have, or had, to deal with an unsatisfying and unfulfilling sexual life. The data presented throughout the project suggests that the general mindset surrounding sexuality tends to penalize women’s pleasure while overfocusing on the man’s perspective. Following these findings, a new service, called Kora, was developed. Kora is a hybrid community, both digital and physical, whose primary purpose is to normalize the conversation about sex among women, regardless of their sexual orientation or social background. At the root of this service is the belief that providing a safe space to talk about sex pleasure and well-being, combined with quality information, is vital to encouraging sex-positivity among women.
Overview
Highlights on the Methodology
Following the example of sex researcher Pei Yuxin (Zhao, 2014),this research was mostly qualitative, with one to one interviews with users and collaborative design through small workshops and brainstorm sessions. From the initial problem investigation through prototyping and testing, women actively participated in all stages. This inclusive approach was essential to identify genuine issues and develop impactful solutions, given the sensitive nature of the subject matter.
The research stages
The following research question was developed following multiple sources of qualitative information and desk research:
Scientific literature review
Data & case studies collection
4 Expert interviews
12 Women qualitative interviews
Interesting data...
The charts bellow reveal a significant orgasm gap between men and women. Research indicates that biologically, women can achieve orgasm as easily as men, suggesting that sociocultural factors contribute to this gap (Reflecting traditional sexual norms.)
How do we handle it?
A potential solution lies in sex-positivity. A case study research has indicated a shift towards sex-positive trends that are presently aiding women in dismantling taboos and embracing their sexuality.
The case studies we presented were grouped into sub-trends within the sex-positive movement. These can serve as a roadmap for developing new services and products aimed at challenging norms and empowering women to enhance their sexual health and agency. In the final project of this research, the project's vision and mission fully embraced these trends, which then became the foundational pillars of the service.
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What did women say?
It was conducted 12 interviews, lasting 1:00-1:30 each. Participants were women aged 20-36, predominantly from Western culture. An interview script ensured consistency and comparability across interviews. The interviews began with participants sharing personal sexual experiences freely, covering positive, negative, and ambiguous aspects. Subsequent questions, partly derived from The Women’s Nontraditional Sexuality Questionnaire, explored perceptions of sexual pleasure, agency, and traditional sexual norms. Participants were also asked to draw a vagina, which were later used as their avatar IDs in this chapter.
Some findings
After a thorough analysis of the interviews and cross-referencing insights from expert interviews, the data revealed several shared insights (among others not explicitly detailed here):
01
Women want to know what real sex looks like for other women
02
Women have difficulties to tell what they want, and to know what they want.
03
Someone they met open-minded like was the game changer to them start to explore pleasure or try new things
04
People are genuinely interested in discussing the topic and tend to respond positively to initiatives that approach it with a combination of humor and normalization.
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Let's Co-create with women!
It started with a collaborative brainstorming session, where women actively contributed to selecting the most important 'How might we' inquiries that pertained to their requirements. After that, I conducted an activity employing personas tool, crafted from the gathered data, to help them empathize an open up while talking about a 3rd person. The group of women then generated ideas on how to offer assistance to these personas, whether through references, advice, solutions, or other means. This procedure served as a foundation for formulating preliminary hypotheses.
Goals:
DEFINE: Present multiple HMW, select what is more important
IDEATE: Ideate on how to help the personas
Tools & Methods: HMW, Personas, Brainstorm
Findings
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The topic must tackled indirectly, it starts first with something lighter to help them open up.
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There is a need of a figure who starts first, once you open up they open-up.
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Anonymity is fundamental.
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There must be a contextualized space to talk about sex, once you set the space, interactions are organic because there is interest.
Where can we act?
"How might we help women exchange information about their real sex experiences in a free-of-judgment and trustful way?"
Let's Co-design!
It began with a co-brainstorming session in which women assisted me in identifying the most relevant 'How might we' questions related to their needs. Following this, I conducted an activity with personas as a support tool, designed based on the collected data, focusing on specific problems related to the topic. The group of women then brainstormed ways to provide assistance for the personas, whether in the form of references, tips, solutions, or any other means. This process allowed me to start formulating initial hypotheses
Goals:
TEST: First exercise to evaluate interactions
IDEATE: Grow the ideas into concepts, select bests
PROTOTYPE: Ideate on how to help the personas
Tools & Methods: HMW, Personas, Case studies, brainstorm, fast prototype.
Findings
• Women agree that men should not be left aside, but inside an empowerment tool focused on women they should have a secondary role called “listener”
• It’s complicated to evaluate what is right and wrong when comes to sex (Need for facilitator/ moderator)
“ We are closer than we think, even if we barely know each other, the doubts are the same!”
• The concept of creating a community as a service was first mentioned, which would guide further development of the service
Prototyping the service
After the previous co-design the concept of a community started to be developed as a service. To create a meaninfull and trully relevant experience for woman, It was developed a first prototype of how it would work and tested with woman in order to co-create what they would like to see there.
Goals:
PROTOTYPE: Understand what women seek in a sex-positive community, and what are the limits
TEST: Select people similar to the personas profiles and watch the interaction
Tools & Methods: Probes, Brainstorm, Card sorting
Findings
• Interactions happened organically
• Women assume different personas during the interaction.
• Some profiles inhibit others (Need for facilitator/moderator)
Presenting
Value proposition: Kora is a community of women with the aim of helping them drive their own sexual scripts and build a sexual agency by normalizing the conversation about sexuality and creating a safe space where women can be listened to and listen.
How does it work?
Kora provides a safe space for women to openly discuss sexual pleasure, body exploration, sexual well-being, and sex-positivity. It offers free features to all women, facilitated by trained moderators who ensure respectful conversations and prevent misinformation. Kora also promotes recommended brands and experts aligned with a sex-positive approach. The community hosts physical events for women to engage with experts and discuss sexuality, potentially including partners. These events serve as a revenue source through ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities.
System map
Customer journey maps
Multiple actors have various roles and journeys within the service in order to address the diversity of women. Multiple customer journey experiences were developed to support and address specific pain points they might have at the relevant touchpoints.
Future work &
Conclusion
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After testing the "sex talks" one of the events promoted by the service. It was possible to note the importance of having a well-trained moderator.
Surprisingly, simple possibilities to then talk about it and few amounts of information exchanged provided by this project development, already showed an impact on women's life continuously reinforced by the feedback receiveds, demonstrating that access to comprehensive information can change the sexual empowerment of women.
That was the kickstart that Kora aims to address. Our society still needs encouragement in the simple act to talk about sex and normalize the topic. Women need support to be empowered.
Setting the space for women to realize that their fears and anxieties are shared by others, can demystify the perspective that sex is perfect and no one is having issues about it.
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