Julie is a women's consumer healthcare startup with a new mission of becoming the one-stop shop for women's reproductive and sexual health. Beyond their own emergency contraceptive pill, Julie is building a resource hub for AFAB users that leverages medical advice, AI assistance, and cultural relevance.

julie's goals include

1. Promoting shame-free information on pleasure, confidence and care for women, not just medical advice and crisis management.

2. Keeping medical accuracy and clinical rigor at the forefront of AI systems.

3. Maintaining user trust in not just Julie's products, but in Julie as a brand; this helps convert site visitors into customers and regular site users.

the opportunity:

Julie's site received 190k user sessions and 350k site views over 6 months, with the top traffic producer being organic search. These statistics signal an existing engaged audience, with the chance to expand beyond a healthcare brand but also a trusted partner in women's reproductive health.

challenge: medical credibility

The new articles page with reviewed medical articles did not visually uphold the sensitivity and scientific nature of the subject material. Julie's site lacked the medical credibility that would keep users coming to Julie as a first resource for medical advice. Before trying to uplift and handle sensitive health questions, users need to see Julie as a place with healthcare professionals calling the shots.

Upon identifying the clear gap between medical professionals and medical advice, I created a low-fidelity wireframe of medical team pages. These pages feature professional headshots, education background, and work history to create a sense of much needed professionalism. Members of the medical team are board-certified and Doctors of Medicine (MDs), something that should be clear on a site with lots of medical articles.

challenge: faq experience

The original FAQ page presented itself as an extensive, intimidating list of questions ranging from side effects to before and aftercare of the EC pill. This overwhelming and exhaustive list created a sense of fear rather than a sense of genuine curiosity or interest.

The intern team advocated for a restructuring of the FAQ page, namely for two things: modularity and reframed language.

Our mockup above splits the questions into expandable drawers with just the subject clearly labeled above. Without the subjects, it almost seemed the whole list was about the EC's side effects, but a clear text hierarchy helped with making it readable and clear the FAQs were more than just the pill's effects.

challenge: visual system (colors)

The first design iteration focused on pinks, purples, and oranges as the primary color palette. While warm and soothing, the saturation and misalignment between Julie's original packaging and brand identity was a point of concern, and warranted shifting towards a different color palette. The team suggested keeping the gradient, but opting to use that in the AI chat to keep the soothing vibe while being visually appealing in the new AI feature. The remainder of the website shifted towards more white and signature pink with brand photos and less 3-D, unrelated graphics for visual assets.

challenge: article section

The article grid used a card layout system with tags and titles for each piece. This iteration added small credential tags next to medical authors' names - a direct response to Phase 1's credibility concerns. The images used as covers, however, created an unexpected problem: the Pinterest-like look created cultural relevance, but detached from the medical authority of the articles themselves. The lack of related images were confusing and did not look like a grid of articles, but rather a blog site.

The main point of feedback was the visual assets and images used, but also validating the use of more animation and moving parts for the site. For example, hover effects on the article page - a fuzzy pink outline and rounding corners, added the sense of play without compromising on credibility.

challenge: ai placement

With this feature being innovative and newly implemented, Julie Products spent time debating whether keeping the AI accessible at all times (known as a "sticky bar") while scrolling would be the best way to encourage its usage. However, it proved to be a little too gimmicky; having the AI constantly available discouraged us from checking other informational parts of the site (articles, FAQ). We advocated for repositioning the AI after the FAQ section if it was going to be native to the homepage. The sticky chat bar emerged as the solution—a persistent but unobtrusive way to keep AI available without being pushy. The FAQ serves as the primary entry point, while the AI is there for more specific questions.

challenge: conversational design & ai interface

A key part of the AI was the experience it provided users, especially those who may be in a more vulnerable place concerning birth control, pregnancy, and other reproductive topics. The process of vetting the AI was crucial to ensure a positive user experience, which relied on everything from the actual interface and features provided to the language used when responding. The AI excelled at inclusivity, using supportive, comforting language that aligned with Julie's shame-free mission. However, the interface itself slowly became more overwhelming and cluttered as more information was provided by the AI. For example, the AI references existing articles on the site and allows the user to split-screen the article and conversation, which we hoped would help with user engagement and trust. In practice, the interface became unintuitive, and toggling between the different parts of the interface (the article, close button, exiting back to the site) became difficult. We suggested a slider-controlled split-screen view to aid user control while preserving the connection between the user, AI, and medical information.