ORA: An Intuitive Redesign of the Menstrual Cup and Applicator
The ORA cup and applicator is a self-care product duo for young teenagers to alleviate the intimidation of folding and inserting menstrual cups. On a mission to create eco-friendly, high-performance products, second-year students Nihaarika Arora, Cheryl Zhang, and Xinyue Wu designed ORA during the Product, Brand, and Experience course taught by Hlynur Atlasson.
Menstrual care should be natural, intuitive, predictable, and reliable.
The ORA team carefully researched the available menstrual cups on the market and saw an opportunity to design specifically for teenagers and first-time users. They were excited to create a menstrual cup and applicator that intuitively helps follow a universal fold for easy insertion. "The best approach to menstrual care should be natural, intuitive, predictable, and reliable," says team member Nihaarika Arora. She also shared their dreams for ORA to create impact beyond the realm of product design: "In the future, we as a team would like to promote menstrual education and provide equal opportunity for clean and reliable menstrual products."
Many experts believe that menstrual cups are the safest period hygiene products. According to OB-GYN Dr. Katya Ostrow, "there is a learning curve, but once you learn it, you never feel it in your vaginal canal. Compared to tampons, it is recommended since there is a low risk for toxic shock syndrome." Team ORA was also interested in the opportunity to help teenagers develop healthy new habits from the ground up. "According to psychologists, habits are easier to make than to break," Cheryl Zhang shares. "Since young female teenagers must learn how to use a menstrual product anyway, we saw an opportunity to help them make a better long-term choice by using our designed menstrual cup and applicator."
"Menstrual cups are the safest period hygiene products. There is a learning curve, but once you learn it, you never feel it in your vaginal canal." —Dr. Katya Ostrow, OB-GYN
The team interviewed 16 individuals where they asked about the successes and challenges of using menstrual products. They found that one consistent problem (or "pain point") of using a menstrual cup was in the folding and insertion step. One participant explained, "Learning how to fold it and insert it in a way that worked for my body was challenging." Another shared, "I gave up when I was unable to correctly insert the cup after several attempts." These insights lead the team to design a more intuitive and user-friendly approach to the ORA menstrual cup. Let’s take a look at the design ideation and prototyping process:
So how does ORA work exactly? “First, the ORA cup is inserted into the vaginal canal using the reusable applicator,” Xinyue Wu explains. “The cup collects rather than absorbs blood which reduces the chance of toxic shock syndrome. Next, the soft applicator head must be inserted into the canal (about 2 inches). The push stick helps release the cup. If inserted correctly, there should be no discomfort.” Let’s take a tour of how ORA works in this animated gif:
The team also designed ORA’s branding and website. Let’s take a look here:
