Clue is a reproductive health app with various modes for different reproductive goals, loved by 11 million users across dozens of languages, known for its inclusive and science-backed approach to menstrual tracking. My team sought to create a customized mode for users in perimenopause with improved data visualizations.
Jump to interactive prototype
Clue is a reproductive health app with 11 million users across dozens of languages, known for its inclusive and science-backed approach to menstrual tracking. My team identified a gap in the market for users in their 40s and 50s transitioning to menopause.
User need: As users age and menstrual cycles become irregular, Clue's period predictions become unreliable and the app's core function becomes less useful.
Business need: Reduce churn from users with irregular periods as 11% of Clue users are 39+ and more likely to upgrade to paid plans.
Team: product manager, UX researcher, UX writer, science lead, iOS/Android engineers.
We sought to better understand how users currently understand perimenopause and its symptoms—their habits, frustrations, and context of use for Clue.
Perimenopause can begin 10 years before menopause, with irregular cycles, hormonal fluctuations, and varying symptoms. Compared to puberty, perimenopause hormones can fluctuate more dramatically, with surges and drops instead of a gradual increase, often with higher peaks of estrogen compared to the relatively stable increases seen in puberty. This results in a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms that can vary wildly in intensity and frequency between users. People manage their symptoms in various ways—from lifestyle changes such as meditation and sleep hygiene to supplements and hormone replacement therapy (HRT)—which is useful to track in order to better manage their transition.
Few apps served this market; Clue had the potential to be a leader in this space. Apps like Perry, Balance, Stella, Caria, and Health & Her provided symptom tracking, community discussion forum spaces, personalized insights, and educational content. Clue stacked up well as one of the pioneers in femtech, missing only the community features, which was on the roadmap.
I interviewed 15 Clue users in perimenopause, 60 minute sessions. Key themes emerged:
Most interviewees couldn’t talk to their moms or sisters about their experiences, and felt like alone in their quest for information, while increasingly overlooked by society. I think direct quotes best illustrate these sentiments.
Through Clue’s social channels, App Store reviews, support tickets, and routine user interviews, we consistently heard user feedback around:
The language of the banner and center messaging was upsetting. When users open the app after a long break, the first words they see are “Your period is [##] days late”
Frustration over lack of support to analyze their tracked data. Loyal users with up to a decade of consistently tracked symptoms had no easy way to make sense of their data.
Synthesizing user interview themes alongside our UX Researcher
What is happening?
Allow users to track perimenopause-specific symptoms and experiences.
What are the patterns?
Allow users to view and understand: symptom occurrences (individual tracked instances), trends (increase or decrease over time), patterns (example: reoccurring at certain points in cycle), correlations to other tracked symptoms (example: period cramps always align with migraine). Descoped for MVP.
What is normal?
Allow users to understand what is typical and when to talk to a doctor. What can be done? Educate users on potential symptom mitigation or lifestyle changes. Descoped for MVP due to legal/medical concerns.
I led a series of workshops with internal stakeholders and engineering to brainstorm which user needs to focus on and how to narrow the scope for the MVP. Our focus areas included the following:
One of the primary aims of the new mode was to help users orient themselves in their perimenopause progression by understanding changes in their period and cycle length. We decided to leverage our Cycle View's center messaging space, which is effectively the app's home screen and provides an overview on the user's current cycle. From there, with the copywriter, researcher, and project manager, we ran unmoderated concept tests to evaluate how perimenopause users feel about period predictions and comparing their current cycle to their last cycle length.
I created a perimenopause tracking category for fast access to key symptoms, consolidating all perimenopause-related trackable experiences into one easy-reach section. This previously involved lots of tapping and scrolling in and out of different categories, as perimenopause symptoms affect many different body and emotional categories. Now users only needed to open one tracking category, conveniently titled "perimenopause."
In doing so, I overcame a technical challenge: we did not have an existing technical solution for displaying the same tracking option under multiple categories (ex. hot flashes under both pregnancy experiences and perimenopause experiences) and did not want to duplicate the tracking option as it would complicate the back-end data model. Engineers preferred to align to the existing tracking foundation and rely on a tutorial flow to show users where to find various PMP symptoms in their current homes. For example, directing users to find Hot Flashes under Pregnancy Experiences. I brought the team around by demonstrating how pivotal this feature is to users in testing, with the following arguments:
We added several brand new perimenopause-specific tracking categories, sourced from Science team and user requests, which included everything from "vaginal dryness" to "night sweats" and "hot flashes." I designed new icons consistent with our existing iconography and added to the design system.
I created new entry points to the mode, paired onboarding screens with visuals to enhance the comforting new welcome messaging. I updated the color scheme and visuals throughout the mode in a Berry color, specific to perimenopause.
Due to limited engineering resources and competing priorities, the MVP scope included limited onboarding screens, a minimal tweak to the Cycle View messaging, the new tracking options and categories, and a few perimenopause-specific educational and scientific articles. We prepared an early use survey for two weeks after launch to evaluate if this was enough or if users didn't feel this provided enough value for their subscription.
We successfully launched Clue Perimenopause Mode, positioning Clue as the first period-tracking app to address this underserved market. Its release improved user satisfaction for older users and addressed the churn issue with a tailored mode. After just 2 months, Perimenopause mode had generated 23k sales and 3k subscribers. Our main rival and biggest name on the market, Flo, joined afterwards, mirroring many of our features.
We surveyed 1044 users who had been in the mode for at least 2 weeks. The majority (53%) were satisfied with the mode, but 42% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied because many of them don’t see the difference between Clue PMP and regular Clue.
Time and time again we heard requests for better analysis and data visualizations. Respondents reported their biggest perimenopause challenge was overwhelmingly symptom management (54%), followed distantly by their unpredictable and heavy periods (13%). The open feedback fields were full of requests like the following:
One of the main takeaways: Respondents wished to track symptoms in order to monitor them and to see changes over time, identify patterns and trends and to be able to mitigate them on their own or with the help of a doctor. This feedback finally provided enough support to tackle the data visualizations features which had been descoped for MVP.
I redesigned the "Cycle History" section for perimenopause users to better understand their data trends. Use cases fell into two categories of users: deep & personalized VS broad & shallow. We decided to focus on the deep & personalized subset. These users who care most about data visuals are likely the most likely to pay for a subscription. They’re motivated to get to the bottom of a specific concern—currently they tap in and out of calendar days, a very arduous process.
I initially reskinned Cycle History during the app re-platforming, my first project at Clue. Deadlines and resources were tight, scope was narrow, so most of the functionality was cut. Users could only see cycle and period start and end dates, and Analysis Tab provided little value.
My Cycle History redesign displayed tracked symptoms in more granular detail with a dot overview which scrolled horizontally. On first open after the update, a bobbing animation encouraged users to interact with the feature. This and a more obvious drop shadow was added following findings from usability testing.
I fixed usability issues by carefully finding the sweet spot between a11y and readability, while accommodating power users. I carefully tested truncation rules across Clue's many supported languages and created special contextual labels for longer tracked item titles.
To keep the UI clean, we added a show/hide toggle that let users filter out symptom data and focus solely on cycle lengths if preferred. I condensed vertical spacing, granting users an overview of their cycle lengths over time.
I introduced a filter option that empowered users to conduct their own data analysis, letting them spotlight specific symptoms to compare co-occurrences. This addressed the needs of power users who wanted the flexibility to determine patterns themselves.
After launching the update, we received positive feedback, such as:
“Guys, last update of the app is phenomenal! I really enjoyed the metrics and dashboard showing all the symptoms. Thank you a lot e congratulations for this. Simply the best period tracker ever!!!”
“I’ve been using the app for period tracking for over ten years and I’m so excited to be to continue using it as things change for me. I always recommend Clue. ”
This project taught me the value of advocating for the user and collaborating closely with stakeholders. I learned how to balance tight deadlines with user needs and honed my skills in interviewing users about sensitive health issues. Hearing firsthand how Clue helped these users feel seen and supported was incredibly fulfilling.
