How might we evolve product design to genuinely serve women’s health needs, addressing the historical gaps created by a system that largely focused on male physiology? This session with Julie, a Senior Product Designer at ŌURA, highlights the critical importance of designing for female physiology and the complexities inherent in creating truly supportive health experiences. Julie begins by underscoring how women and people with cycles have been historically excluded from medical research due to perceived "hormone fluctuations," leading to a "one-size-fits-all" approach based on male clinical trials that ultimately causes harm. She provides stark examples, such as crash test dummies modeled solely on men leading to higher injury rates for women, and the fact that women’s health products have often been under-tested for real-world use — highlighting why Oura prioritizes validating features with real physiological data. Julie emphasizes that the healthcare system was largely designed for men, often leading to women's symptoms being disbelieved and significant delays in diagnoses for common conditions like endometriosis. ŌURA's mission, she explains, is to empower women with tools for body literacy, making this information widely available and commonplace.

Julie then dives into the intricate details of female physiology, including the menstrual, ovarian, uterine, and hormonal cycles, and how ŌURA's temperature data reflects these changes to predict ovulation and fertile windows. She shares how ŌURA's features evolved from simple period predictions to FDA-registered fertile window tracking. A key learning from this development journey was the crucial need to test with real data, especially for long-term health experiences like pregnancy and perimenopause, which can span months to years. She stresses that designing for women's health demands designing for complexity first, and that "if you solve for the most complex situations, you often solve for everyone."

Throughout the session, IDEO designers engaged with Julie on various aspects. They inquired about the technical specifics of data collection, such as how ŌURA takes temperature readings and how often the ring pulls data. Participants also asked about the impact of birth control on ŌURA's readings, to which Julie clarified that types of hormonal birth control can suppress ovulation, making the cyclic temperature patterns absent and rendering the fertile window feature not applicable for those users. There was also discussion around the utility of ŌURA data for gynecologists in helping women with infertility - the app provides exportable PDF reports for doctors to assess cycle regularity and ovulation patterns. The conversation extended to the broader societal implications of ŌURA's work, including the importance of sensitive design for diverse pregnancy experiences, acknowledging that not every pregnancy journey is the same — and that compassionate, thoughtful design is essential to ensure all users feel supported throughout their experience.. This highlighted the deep commitment to user well-being and ethical considerations that permeate ŌURA's product development in the sensitive space of women's health.