Value of Design Award

Hello Cup 9 Hello Disc

Finalist
Credits
  • Pou Auaha / Creative Directors
    Robyn McLean, Mary Bond, Kim Rosas
Description:

Our menstrual disc is the first in the world with a looped removal tab designed for mess-free, single-finger removal. It replaces the need for single use period products such as tampons and pads. Providing leak-free period care, the soft, body-safe, medical grade silicone is easy to insert and remove.

It resolves a key design challenge presented by existing discs - they are hard to remove. Competing brands either have no removal mechanism or a silicone ‘string’ which gives the user no control when removing.

The double looped tab can be worn several ways including: dropped for people with a high cervix, looped for an average cervix height, and trimmed for users with a low cervix. The tab can also be tucked to allow for no mess period sex.

Demand for the product has been unprecedented, selling two years worth of forecast product in three months.

The design provides a user experience that is reliable and. It outperforms and outlasts single-use period products.

The quality of the menstrual disc is extremely high. The reviews speak for themselves. Made to International Medical grade standards and ISO 13485 certified, each disc saves over 2000 single use products from landfill. It has a lifespan of up to 10 years.

Innovative use of materials in the design were achieved through much experimentation to ensure we could produce extremely thin sections of silicone to achieve user function and comfort.

New-to-world design is achieved by incorporating an internal rim to enhance user comfort and also via the adjustable looped tab can be worn four ways and makes it suitable for all cervix heights.

The key leading-edge innovations featured in our product which makes it stand out ahead of its competitors are: the looped removal tab, the variable material thickness and the internal rim.

The looped removal tab allows for user adjustability and ease of use - both real and perceived (which helps break down those initial barriers to uptake of it being difficult to remove).
Variable material thicknesses make it challenging to manufacture but bring significant user performance benefits; it allows us to apply different performance characteristics to different parts of the product - thin sections conform to the body while the thick sections provide strength and stability via the rim.

The internal rim brings visual elegance to the design which reduces perceived barriers to user uptake as it looks considered, feminine and designed (rather than engineered which the majority of competing products are). Making the rim internal rather than external improves comfort whilst still fulfilling the performance requirement.

By using a complex method of silicone moulding we have achieve a design that is easy to use, beautiful and desirable. It hasL high product performance under a critical application, long product life, user adjustability and high volume manufacture to achieve high market demand. By achieving all of these outcomes we have created a new and ground-breaking value proposition that is having massive uptake and success in the market.