Period.

DFA Rice | 2019

DFA Rice Team

Allison Yelvington, Emma Siegal, Magdah Omer, & Riley Holmes

DFA Rice Website

How can we increase accessibility of the menstrual products for menstruating people on Rice’s Campus?

Logo for the menstrual movement named 'PERIOD.' with the tagline 'The Menstrual Movement' and the text 'RICE x BCM' underneath.

Community Partner: Period

DFA Rice and Baylor College of Medicine partnered with Period. Baylor College of Medicine is a health sciences university that creates knowledge and applies science and discoveries to further education, healthcare and community service locally and globally.

Map of Rice University campus, showing building layouts, parking areas, and streets, with two red circles highlighting specific zones.
Magnifying glass icon inside a red circle.

The Challenge at Hand

Finding Targeted Problem Spaces

DFA Rice identified many different opportunity spaces for better access to period products on campus. They found people feel anxious and stressed when on their period, and 1 in 5 students miss school because of their period. At Rice, 30% of students feel they need a long-term solution for access to menstrual products.

Pink circle with a white eye symbol in the center
Map of Rice University Student Center layout showing various rooms, restrooms, accessible entries, and bike access points, with red stars marking locations labeled RWRDC and SSI.

Immerse

Site Visit + Interviews

The team immersed themselves into Rice University’s campus to conduct initial research by identifying stakeholders and conducting interviews with menstruating people. They found that regardless of financial need, some people feel it is unfair to have to pay for this necessity. They also found Rice students don’t feel social stigma that would stop them from taking a menstrual product in a time of need, but they do feel stigma against taking multiple products at once. Some users disliked the quality of the tampons they receive from university bathrooms.

Red circular icon with a white question mark in the center.

Incorporating Community Perspectives

Reframing the Challenge

The interviews helped reframe design goals and measures of success for the project, shifting their core focus to:

How can we facilitate access to a long-term supply of high quality menstrual products to those who need it on Rice’s campus?

An overhead view of a table with three bins containing menstrual products. The left bin has menstrual product bundles, the middle bin is empty, and the right bin has loose products separated by a small white partition. Labels indicate the organization of the products, including a section for building your own period pack.
Pink circular icon with a white light bulb symbol in the center.

Brainstorming Possibilities

Ideating Solutions

Next steps were to ideate solutions to meet the needs and challenges they’ve identified. The ideation process helped them figure out their long-term goal. They want users to feel more comfortable taking as many products as they need from existing resources. For the short term, they implemented a solution that was accessible and intuitive for stakeholder to implement.

Flyer announcing free period products with a QR code, taped to a black surface, with a note saying 'Thank You!'

Creating for the Challenge

Prototyping Various Solutions

The team split into two project teams to build and prototype their solutions. Their prototypes included menstrual product bundles, a build your own period pack, and various period products to choose from.

White cube icon inside a red circle.
Three images showing different ways to organize menstrual products in a drawer. The first image shows individual pads, tampons, and panty liners. The second image shows brown paper bags and menstrual products. The third image shows bundled pads, tampons, and panty liners with rubber bands.
Pink circle with a white checkmark inside.
Cover page of a report titled 'The State of Menstrual Product Access at Rice University 2019-2020' with an illustration of a tampon.

Trying it Out

User Testing

After receiving feedback from user testing with various prototypes, the team learned that people want the ability to take what they need and just what they need. Menstruation is highly individual, and so the solutions that took away flexibility for the sake of encouraging taking multiple products at once were not effective.

Three women smiling and holding labeled plastic bins with supplies, inside a room with a glass window and door, signs, and equipment in the background.
View their final presentation here!

Reflecting on the Process

Finding Targeted Problem Spaces

When asked about reflecting on the project, the teams said it was difficult to access the “hidden user” that is more financially burdened by access to menstrual products. They are also proud of their team’s ability to reframe more than once.