Hinge Health
Incorporating mental health and menstrual health support in Hinge health's digital physical therapy app serving 1M+ users
My Role
Data analysis
Design Strategy
UX Design
Timeline
August 2024 - May 2025 (9 months)
Team
1 UX Researcher
1 UX Designer
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Google Sheets
Notion
The Challenge
Hinge Health is a leading physical therapy app for musculoskeletal care helping individuals treat and prevent joint and muscle pain. Physiotherapists work with users digitally to track their progress and adjust plans based on their needs.
Hinge Health asked us to explore women's health, with a focus on menstruation, to identify new product opportunities that could enhance their app's value. Through our initial research, we found that menstrual health, particularly menstrual pain management and its impact on mental health, generated the most interest among our participants.
Additionally, Hinge Health sought to integrate AI to assist users with their health needs, replacing manual physiotherapist support to reduce company costs.
Identifying our focus area
Exploring the problem space in depth - Literature review
We started our project by reviewing existing literature to identify key correlations between menstrual health, physical exercise, diet, and mental health.
From our findings, we narrowed our focus to menstrual pain management and its connection to mental health.
Additionally, we explored factors such as quality of life(QOL) and social support, recognizing their potential impact on mental well-being.
Defining our Target user
The literature review helped us narrow down our search to menstrual pain management.
We chose to focus on patients with primary dysmenorrhea. Unlike secondary dysmenorrhea, which is caused by underlying medical conditions such as endometriosis or fibroids and typically requires specialized medical intervention, primary dysmenorrhea is characterized by recurrent menstrual cramps without an identifiable pathological cause.
Given that physiotherapy techniques such as exercise, stretching, and relaxation methods have been shown to alleviate menstrual pain, our app aims to provide accessible, evidence-based relief for individuals with primary dysmenorrhea. By targeting this group, we can offer effective pain management solutions without requiring extensive medical oversight, making the app more widely applicable and beneficial for users seeking non-invasive, self-managed treatments.
Our target user group was users aged 18-30 experiencing Primary Dysmenorrhea.
Understanding our users - Survey and Interviews
Survey
To gain a deeper understanding of our users and their challenges, we conducted surveys with the following objectives:
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Identify key challenges users face during menstrual cycles.
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Explore current coping strategies for managing menstrual pain and mental health.
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Assess the impact of social support in navigating menstrual-related difficulties.
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Recruit participants for follow-up interviews to gather further insights.
We received over 40 survey responses, and after excluding participants who did not meet our inclusion criteria, we narrowed down to 29 responses. These participants were between the ages of 18-30, experienced at least moderate pain, and exhibited symptoms of PD.
Survey results
We inquired about participants experiences with menstrual pain and its impact on their daily lives.
More than half (64%) reported that period pain moderately or significantly affects their daily activities, including work, exercise, mental health, and relationships.
All participants (100%) reported that their period affects their mental health, with 24% stating that it has at least a moderate impact. This suggests that for nearly a quarter of respondents, menstrual pain moderately affects their mental well-being, and they sometimes struggle to cope.
Given the significant impact of menstruation on mental health, we prioritized integrating mental well-being into our solution, addressing it alongside menstrual health management.
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Interviews
We interviewed 5 participants with the following objectives:
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Understand participant’s personal experiences with menstrual pain and its impact on their day-to day life
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Understand their mental health support needs during the menstrual cycle.
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Identify the kind of social support they seek and how it could help them cope better.
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Discover potential opportunities for intervention and new solutions to support their well-being.
We transcribed our interviews and used Condens for open coding, tagging key insights. Next, we analyzed the codes to identify patterns and employed affinity mapping to organize them into broader themes.
We arranged them into four major categories: Trends and insights, challenges, current strategies and design suggestions.
Findings and recommendations
We distilled our findings from the survey and interviews to gather these broad insights:
Drawing from insights gathered through surveys and interviews, we developed a set of design recommendations to guide our design process.
"How might we offer personalized support for users' menstrual health while addressing their varying physical and emotional needs?"
Journey map
To better understand the menstrual cycle and identify opportunities for our solution, we created a journey map to guide the design process.
Creating this journey map helped us identify the types of exercises to recommend during each phase of the menstrual cycle. It also provided insights into when to emphasize mental health and meditation throughout the cycle.
Understanding AI and how it will work for our design
Next, we shifted our focus to exploring how AI could be integrated into the app beyond visual design. We studied AI systems to understand their functionality and applied these insights to refine our user flow.
To deepen our expertise in the technical aspects of AI and clarify its integration—especially in terms of data sourcing and usage—we created a chart to organize and define the AI structure within our solution.
We discovered that, beyond integrating an AI chatbot, AI could be used to predict menstrual cycle phases and personalize recommendations based on each user's cycle.
Additionally, AI could help predict changes in the menstrual cycle, allowing us to tailor exercise goals accordingly. For example, recommending low-intensity exercises during the luteal phase, just before menstruation, while focusing on breathing and relaxation exercises to support mental health during this time.
Sketching
We started with low-fidelity sketches to explore feature placement and potential improvements to the existing app. Using Figma, we created and iterated on low-fidelity versions, refining the design based on initial insights. To validate our concepts, we gathered feedback from 20 participants, including UX professionals.
To ensure the focus remained on functionality and user flow rather than visual design, we styled the low-fidelity prototypes to resemble high-fidelity versions.
Key insights
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Menstruation as a Secondary Feature
Participants expressed that menstruation should not be the primary focus of the app, given its core function as a physical therapy tool. Instead, they recommended giving it a dedicated section rather than integrating it prominently throughout the experience.
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Preferred Presentation of Menstrual Data
When asked how they would like to view their menstrual information, participants favored a simple and clear approach. Rather than general cycle insights or future predictions, they preferred seeing their current period day and what it means for their cycle at that moment.
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Skepticism Toward AI for Health Guidance
While we explored the potential use of an AI chatbot for health-related questions and exercise adjustments, most participants indicated they would not use it. They expressed greater trust in verified sources over AI for health information and preferred manually adjusting their exercise settings instead.
Prototyping
Based on the feedback received during the sketching phase, we developed mid-fidelity wireframes to address these concerns.
Menstruation Preferences in Onboarding
To better understand users' preferences and needs, we integrated menstruation-related questions into the onboarding experience. This allows users to customize their experience based on their cycle, ensuring that menstrual insights are relevant and appropriately tailored without overshadowing the app’s primary focus on physical therapy.
Enhanced Home Screen with Menstrual Insights and Exercise Focus
The Home Screen was refined to display only essential menstrual information, ensuring it remains relevant without being overwhelming.
Additionally, we introduced personalized "Focuses" that recommend specific types and intensities of exercises based on the user's current menstrual phase. Users can expand and see a brief explanation to understand why a particular exercise is suggested and how it aligns with their menstrual status and overall well-being.
Redesigned Progress Tracking with Deeper Insights
The new Progress section provides users with a comprehensive view of their workouts and overall well-being.
Users can analyze their exercise trends and insights over different timeframes—daily, weekly, or monthly. Additionally, the section includes tracking for pain levels, mood, and other key wellness indicators, allowing users to identify patterns and make informed adjustments to their routine.
Streamlined Library for Direct Access to Articles
The Library page has been updated to provide a more focused and user-friendly experience.
Instead of mixing exercises and articles, the new structure displays articles directly, making it easier for users to access relevant information without unnecessary navigation. This change enhances content discoverability and ensures users can quickly find the educational resources they need.
Coming up next...
As this project progresses, we will continue testing our prototypes with more users to refine the experience further. We will incorporate user feedback to make thoughtful adjustments and enhancements to our designs.
Once the designs are finalized, we plan to conduct usability tests to validate our concepts and ensure a seamless user experience. Additionally, we are exploring the opportunity to gather expert feedback from physiotherapists and mental health practitioners to gain professional insights into the app’s effectiveness and impact.