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Modern
Fertility

Company stage
Early stage, Private

Total funding
$22 million

Design lead
2018

Designing a fertility results dashboard for women to measure ovarian reserve, ovulation, and fertility hormone levels in order to make more informed decisions about their reproductive health.

Founded in 2017 by Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy, Modern Fertility offers fertility hormone tests, ovulation tests, and pregnancy tests by mail and in labs to empower women to make informed decisions about their fertility and advocate for their own health. One in eight couples struggle with infertility and 83% of women have anxiety about their ability to get pregnant. Meanwhile, almost half (49%) of the people recently surveyed by Modern Fertility who want kids one day are delaying parenthood. Modern Fertility promises that with just the prick of a finger, women can learn their levels for up to eight reproductive hormones as a way to begin time-sensitive (and ongoing) conversations with their doctors about ovarian reserve, egg freezing and IVF, menopause, and more. By increasing access to affordable fertility hormone tests (far less than it costs in a doctor’s office) and supporting women with accurate data about their reproductive health and resources, the company aims to close the fertility information gap and enable women to take a proactive stance all throughout their fertility journeys.

Applying empathy at an emotional moment

Seeing fertility results for the first time—whether they are “good” or “bad”—is high-stakes. Somehow, we needed to land on a visual tone that blended authenticity, credibility, and humanity. Modern Fertility aspires to reach women at the beginning of their reproductive decisions, so it’s critical to get this right and establish a high level of trust in order to be there with her over the course of her future decisions.

What's in a number?

After learning that her results are ready, the very first thing Modern Fertility’s customer sees when she enters her dashboard is a number. But what does that number mean? I went through a variety of iterations on the approach to scoring in order to strike the right balance—convey credibility through science while also sparking curiosity.

Because the number wants to be a jumping off point to dive deeper and learn more, it is meant to intrigue and avoid being off-putting or even demotivating. Early explorations around a 1-100 scale had too much of a connection to grading—leading to “bad v good” associations. Once a number got bigger, and nodded to an SAT scale, it was disambiguated, and that loss of grading association served as a benefit by inspiring women to want to learn more without triggering an unintended emotion or making her feel judged. Once she sees her number, she gets a quick snapshot of what it is, how it’s calculated, and what it means as a way to engage her in learning more. An affordance for next year—and the year after—helps create an expectation that monitoring your reproductive health is a journey.

I used Cami Dobrin's wonderful illustrations in some of the early concepts that were presented to Modern Fertility. Her style was tailor-made to soften the product experience and help provide comfort and community in something that could undoubtedly be quite scary.

When I reached out to Cami about producing the final illustrations, it was wonderful when she was on-board and we worked together to elevate the end result beyond my expectations.

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