This blog provides a forum for students, instructors and others to share information and ideas about the Spring Thesis Program at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.
OMG, Chelsea, this is so, so, so amazingly great. You have completely turned "feminine hygeine" upside down. Your proposal is both utterly sensible, practical and even necessary, and at the same time completely subversive, anti-social and could be considered deeply hostile to the status quo.
For a product like this to actually work in the market, it would be necessary to create a massive change in our shared conception of cleanliness and good health and even morality. There are probably good reasons for our aversion to the bodily fluids of others. Our progenitors who didn't learn to segregrate biological waste (feces, dead bodies, etc.) became ill and died, so they did not survive to pass on their genes. So, our revulsion for these substances must be driven, in part, by an evolutionary imperative. Now that, through science, we are beginning to see that some of these materials may be useful to us in amazing ways, we need to unlearn the gag reflex acquired over thousands of years if we are to change our lives for the better. Your brainstorming reveals that you are utterly without squeamishness about this topic, so you are ideal person to spearhead this important new development in human culture.
I would expect that the problem you will encounter is not the actual mechanics of collection and shipping, but rather one of attitudes. How can you package this product so that it does not inspire feelings of revulsion, but rather to emphasize the healing potential of menstrual stem cells, and to associate your product with well-being and long-term optimism for the future. So, I would expect that you need to do substantial research to find out what people's responses would actually be when confronted with a store display like the one you suggest would go in Duane Reade next to the tampons and pads. Can you develop a reliable experiment that will provide you with usable data that will allow you to learn more about the user population? Don't assume that everyone is like you. You need to identify a market and then do some very hard-edged testing. Please suggest two or more experiments that you could carry out to accomplish these ends, then we can discuss them at the next class.
BTW, I am glad that you are finally getting hip the fact that menstrual blood is blue, not red!
Thanks for your thoughtful response--you have me thinking about the idea of an evolutionary imperative--positioning my product from this vantage point could be really effective. You are right about my project being largely about perception: "We can't change reality, we can only change people's perception of it."--Fiona Raby. My user testing is taking place this thursday--I have gathered 6-8 women ages 21-31 and I will be talking about my project, showing 3 different internal collection devices, 2 period underwear prototypes and a few packaging ideas. The goal for this first round is to gauge perception and to conversate about their attitudes toward these new ideas surrounding stem cell research and menstrual blood. I'll keep you posted on my findings.
2 comments:
OMG, Chelsea, this is so, so, so amazingly great. You have completely turned "feminine hygeine" upside down. Your proposal is both utterly sensible, practical and even necessary, and at the same time completely subversive, anti-social and could be considered deeply hostile to the status quo.
For a product like this to actually work in the market, it would be necessary to create a massive change in our shared conception of cleanliness and good health and even morality. There are probably good reasons for our aversion to the bodily fluids of others. Our progenitors who didn't learn to segregrate biological waste (feces, dead bodies, etc.) became ill and died, so they did not survive to pass on their genes. So, our revulsion for these substances must be driven, in part, by an evolutionary imperative. Now that, through science, we are beginning to see that some of these materials may be useful to us in amazing ways, we need to unlearn the gag reflex acquired over thousands of years if we are to change our lives for the better. Your brainstorming reveals that you are utterly without squeamishness about this topic, so you are ideal person to spearhead this important new development in human culture.
I would expect that the problem you will encounter is not the actual mechanics of collection and shipping, but rather one of attitudes. How can you package this product so that it does not inspire feelings of revulsion, but rather to emphasize the healing potential of menstrual stem cells, and to associate your product with well-being and long-term optimism for the future. So, I would expect that you need to do substantial research to find out what people's responses would actually be when confronted with a store display like the one you suggest would go in Duane Reade next to the tampons and pads. Can you develop a reliable experiment that will provide you with usable data that will allow you to learn more about the user population? Don't assume that everyone is like you. You need to identify a market and then do some very hard-edged testing. Please suggest two or more experiments that you could carry out to accomplish these ends, then we can discuss them at the next class.
BTW, I am glad that you are finally getting hip the fact that menstrual blood is blue, not red!
Hi Steven
Thanks for your thoughtful response--you have me thinking about the idea of an evolutionary imperative--positioning my product from this vantage point could be really effective. You are right about my project being largely about perception: "We can't change reality, we can only change people's perception of it."--Fiona Raby. My user testing is taking place this thursday--I have gathered 6-8 women ages 21-31 and I will be talking about my project, showing 3 different internal collection devices, 2 period underwear prototypes and a few packaging ideas. The goal for this first round is to gauge perception and to conversate about their attitudes toward these new ideas surrounding stem cell research and menstrual blood. I'll keep you posted on my findings.
Chelsea
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