Guava

AT A GLANCE

• Sector: Women’s health / healthtech
• Product: Guava, an app for choosing a hormonal contraceptive and tracking its side effects
• Audience: Women aged 20–35
• Platforms: iOS and Android
• What we did: Product design and an interactive app prototype
• Stage of engagement: Concept through to an investor-ready prototype
• Timeline: 8 weeks to prototype

THE CHALLENGE IN DETAIL

Guava sat in a gap. The app stores are full of period trackers, but at the time of the project there was nothing that helped a woman choose a hormonal contraceptive and then live with the one she chose. That put two hard design problems inside one product.

The first was choice without a clinician in the room. There are many hormonal contraceptives, and the right one depends on preferences, lifestyle and tolerance for particular side effects — the kind of conversation that normally happens face to face. The app had to help someone narrow the field without ever posing as a diagnosis or a prescription.

The second was logging that people sustain. Side effect data is only useful if it is recorded over weeks and months, so every extra tap in the logging flow is a reason to stop. And because the subject is contraception and sexual health, the interface had to earn trust at sign-up, ask only for what it genuinely needed, and use plain, non-judgemental language throughout.

WHAT WE DESIGNED

We designed and prototyped the app for iOS and Android across five core areas.

Onboarding and sign-up

The opening flow explains what Guava does, and why it asks what it asks, before it asks. Framing the questionnaire as a way to shortlist options rather than to prescribe one sets the expectation the rest of the product depends on.

The eligibility questionnaire

The intake covers preferences and lifestyle, one question per screen, with visible progress so users know how much is left. Answer options are written in everyday language rather than clinical shorthand.

Recommendations

Suggestions are generated from the answers the user has given and presented as options worth considering and discussing with a healthcare professional, rather than as a verdict handed down by the app.

Tracking and the track form

This is the loop the product lives or dies by, so the track form was kept deliberately short — enough structure to be useful, few enough fields to complete in seconds. The tracking view gives that effort somewhere to land.

Medical alerts, the medication library and the profile

Where a logged side effect is one that warrants attention, the app raises an alert telling the user to seek medical advice; it is the one place in the product designed to interrupt. The medication library lets users read about methods independently of the questionnaire, and the profile holds their details and tracking history in one place.

WHAT SHIPPED

We took Guava from concept to a working prototype in eight weeks. The prototype demonstrates the full path: sign up, complete the eligibility questionnaire, receive suggestions based on the data provided, then track side effects and be alerted when one requires medical attention.

The deliverable was a prototype ready to put in front of investors. Guava was not released publicly during our engagement, so there are no download, retention or funding figures to report here. What the work produced was a complete, testable product — onboarding, questionnaire, recommendations, tracking, alerts, medication library and profile — built in eight weeks.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

How do you design for sensitive health data?

By asking for less and explaining more. On Guava the eligibility questionnaire only collects what actually feeds a recommendation, and onboarding tells users why an area is being asked about before the questions start. Keeping what a user has stored visible and reviewable in their profile matters too — people trust an app more when nothing disappears into it.

What makes a health tracking app one people keep using?

The length of the logging flow, more than anything else. If recording a side effect takes a minute, most people stop within a fortnight, so on Guava we designed the track form to be completable in seconds. Low friction has to be paired with a visible return, which is why the tracking view is built to show users something back for the entries they make.

Do you handle accessibility in health apps?

Yes, and it counts for more in this category than most. Health apps get used one-handed, in a hurry and sometimes while unwell, so legible type sizes, generous tap targets and sufficient contrast are part of the design rather than a later pass. Plain, non-judgemental wording is the same job in another form — language people can parse quickly is an accessibility question too.