I received my very first sexual health education when I was 18 to meet the requirement for Boston University’s required sexual misconduct training. By that time, I had already missed the optimal window for sex education, which is shown to be between 9 to 12 years old. There are neither required sexual health education classes in most elementary and middle schools nor sexual misconduct training in most colleges in China. Instead, parents seem to be the primary source of sex education.

However, according to research conducted by the United Nation Population Fund, most parents refrain from having this important conversation with their children out of embarrassment. As such, when the news of ten sixteen-year-old girls being sexually abused by a celebrity came out in 2021, I came to the conclusion that it is now more important than ever to normalize the idea of sex education among parents and their preteen children.

Taking into account the increasing use of mobile phones in China, it is highly feasible to develop an online platform which teaches parents how to provide at-home sexual education. This project designs the interface of a family-based sexuality education mobile application in a Figma design file. In the future, my project could be the basis for a much-needed sexual health educational app in China.

To better understand current sexual health education in China and the needs of Chinese parents, I conducted a online survey. I choose survey over other research methods because it's inexpensive and less time-consuming. The survey is completely anonymous so that I can make sure participants feel comfortable to share any thoughts on the topic.

• The survey is approved by Institutional Review Board (Protocol: 6256X) and is conducted on the Internet and through WeChat. 112 people took the survey. 52 males and 59 females. The majority of samples are between 19-22 years old.
• 81.25% participants received information about sex education through the internets and Social Media. 57.14% participants received the information in school.
• 12.5% participants agreed that their parents gave them well-constructed sex education.
• 74.11% participants feel pressure, anxiety or embarrassment when discussing sex-related topic with parents.
• 51.79% and 45.54% participants will not seek help from school or family members when having a sex-related issue. 40.18% and 49.11% participants absolutely and highly possibly seek help from the Internets and social media.
• 83.04% participants believe that adding official Sex education courses in school is the proper way to improve current sex education in China and 73.12% participants choose at-home sex education.

• The survey result confirms that current sex education in China is not robust enough, especially family-based sex education. It also shows that the Internet/ Social Media is the best platform to increase public awareness of sex education.
• Since the current younger generation are highly dependent on Internet information, it is necessary for developers to make sure the information is correct.
• Most children do not start the conversation on sex topics with parents because they feel equally as embarrassed and anxious as their parent. It is crucial for parents to break the ice and initiate the talk.

To really get a feel for the target users, I always like to create fictitious personas so that I can jump into the users' shoes and really understand their needs, wants, thoughts, and priorities. The target users typically fall somewhere between this spectrum:

The profiles are generated based on the survey background responses. With these fictitious users, I can understand what users can use the app for and how their needs are met by the app.

Detailed Reasoning

After establishing the user profiles, I started ideating the app features. The first feature I want to include is the Create Account and Login feature. Since this is a forum-based app, all users should have an account to write or comment on a post. Having an account in the app also makes users feel like they are "living in a community", which encourages them to post and comment. We can also get their emails so that we can send them promotions and keep them updated with our news. The Forum page is also important. It allows users to talk freely and get help from others. Inspired by another sexual health education platform, I added the Resource Section for users to find authoritative resources. Parents can get help not only from other parents but also experts. Those articles can provide a general guidance and the forum is for some practical issues. In sum, the basic features of the app should include the Create account / Login feature, the Profile feature, the Forum feature, and the Resource feature.

Developing and maintaining an app costs money and the company certainly wants to profit from it. To better convince stakeholders that my app is promising, I added the Shopping feature and Livestreaming feature. I think it would be useful to invite some professors or authorities to share their insights on the topic on live. Parents can ask questions and get reliable answers from the authorities. Some professors can also sell related products for at-home sexual health education such as related children's book. Besides related products recommended by the authorities, the shopping page can also include other general parenting products. Parents can share their experience with the product and make recommendations in the Forum section. With these functions, the app now is not just a platform to get information but also a platform to improve parenting experience.

Detailed Reasoning

After finishing my ideation, I asked my advisor for suggestions on app flow design. We both agreed that the first page users lands on should be the home page where users can choose which section he/she wants to visit. We also agreed to have a toolkit (bottom navigation bar) at the bottom for users to better find directions.

Referencing back to some existing apps, I decided to have the Settings page and Profile page in the toolkit. Most of our target users are parents and some of them are not versed in using smartphones, so I want to make sure that they can easily access the pages where they can change their personal info and other settings of the app. I also want to include the "make post" button so that we can encourage users to post more frequently. Later on, I decided to add a message button which allows users to communicate with each other more easily and build a stronger community.

In the home page, I want to make sure users have access to all the featured sections including Forum, Resource, Shopping, and Livestreaming. Other flows such as Login and Shopping, I take some existing apps like Amazon and Shein as references. Most referenced apps share the same flow, and I consider them as the "conventional flows". Using the conventional flows can ensure my app is new-user-friendly. Even users who are not smartphone-savvy can follow.

Based on my ideation and app flow, I sketched out some basic screen designs for each page.