Feel the Power of You
Role: UX writer & strategist
A post-surgery boutique from diagnosis through continued care.
1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in the course of their life. For most, the loss of one or both of their breasts can be devastating. This is a story about a small team of designers on a mission to help women post-surgery both logistically and emotionally.
The Team
This project took place between November 2020 and March 2021. Sara Featherston led the research, copywriting, and UX strategy. At the same time, Lenka Stepanova led the UI design. This was a full rebranding project for Underneathitall, an e-commerce site for women.
The Challenge-Trauma Surgery
Simplifying an e-commerce website using UX methodologies is pretty straightforward, but how do you help support women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as for those going through treatment and those struggling to find a new normal afterward.
Lead by Listening
Our lack of understanding regarding breast cancer meant we needed to find women willing to share their personal experiences.
After gathering a small group of demographically similar women (ages 45+), we opened the discussion with a few guided questions for research purposes and then strategically quieted ourselves to let the conversation lead the way.
Key Insights
Women prefer breast forms to a prosthesis and many experience side effects like Lymphedema. Overall, women agreed more strongly with body image questions as a motivating factor for breast reconstruction than sexuality or femininity.
Why Words Matter
To understand the broader challenges women face by going breast free, we spent a lot of time buried in traditional desktop research to analyze the different motivations around reconstructive surgery refusal and the various ways of "reconstructing psychologically" after a mastectomy.
Our research revealed that women choose to opt-out of reconstruction because they dread the pain or risk of having another surgery; other times, doctors may advise against it because of medical issues, but a growing number of women are deciding against reconstruction for positive reasons.
Key Insights
Women who have been newly diagnosed with breast cancer need support along with those going through treatment and those struggling to find a new normal afterward.
By reminding women that beauty is not dependent on having breasts and blacklisting words such as breast prosthesis when referring to breast forms, we can help empower women to view breast-free living as a positive alternative to reconstruction.
Empathizing with our target audience was beneficial, but our most valuable insights came from talking with the women behind the scenes, like Sandra, Gayle, Lorraine, and Sharon.
New tagline: Feel the Power of You
While these insights proved beneficial for writing the content, it was only one small aspect of the project. If we wanted to enhance our users’ experience, we needed to simplify the shopping flow to include an integrated booking system.
Problem 1
The old version of the website lacked a hierarchical structure, which led to empty product categories and subcategories that either didn't make sense or repeated themselves. The UI lacked consistency, design elements, useful content, and overall visual identity. A complete redesign was necessary to support the client's ambitious plan to grow and expand.
Solution
After mapping the new information architecture, we conducted a card sorting session and noticed the "compression" card was picked the most often and placed as a priority. We had compressions hidden away, not accessible at all. Furthermore, the old version of the website had fourteen product categories, but we simplified the hierarchical system into 10 main categories.
Problem 2
On the current site, you couldn't book an appointment. You had to call, leave a message and wait for someone to call you back. For us, this meant optimization. We had grand plans to create an integrated booking system to store everything under one roof, so after an ideation session, we developed a new booking flow and put it to the test.
Solution
After rounds of testing, we discovered we were wrong. What we found was the opposite. Our target audience didn't want an automated process; what they wanted was a simple consultation request so they could follow up with a real person. We ultimately found that most women prefer to speak to someone over an automated system.
The user feedback we received and insights we collected showed the brand was under-serving its clientele and undervaluing themselves, so by creating a solution around the clients and employees, we were able to create something more valuable than we initially thought possible.
Feel the Power of You