Mighty Moon:
Redefining the Menstrual Experience
OVERVIEW
Mighty Moon is a subscription-based tampon and comic delivery service forgeek girls. I came up with this idea to combat period shame among young girls, and encourage them to embrace menstruation from a young age.
MY ROLE
Product Designer
RESPONSIBILITIES
User research, problem definition, design, 3D printing, testing,
TIMELINE
March 2017
Team
Teng Yu, Kuan Xu, Manako Tamura
project summary
Anticipatory Design:
The Subscription Model
Mighty Moon redefines the menstrual product delivery service by shifting the user’s emotional state from dread to anticipation. Every four weeks, users receive a customized assortment of tampons and liners, paired with the latest issue of the Mighty Moon comic series. By aligning the product cycle with a compelling narrative arc, the service creates a unique "anticipatory UX," where users look forward to their period as an opportunity to engage with the next chapter of the story.
Discovery
Subverting Gender Stereotypes
through Geek Culture
To establish a unique brand ethos, the team conducted targeted research with "geek girls." This phase revealed a profound connection between the audience and the world of manga and anime, specifically regarding untraditional gender roles.
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Key Insight: Unlike traditional Western narratives, manga often portrays female characters with immense agency—as heroes rather than princesses.
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Femininity as Power: Research showed that power doesn’t have to be "gender-bending"; even "strawberry-colored products can kick ass." This insight directly informed the project’s feminist aesthetic, reclaiming traditionally "girly" colors like pink as symbols of strength and complicated personalities.
CO-CREATION
Mapping the User Journey & Stigma
The second phase utilized co-creative workshops to decode the physical and emotional steps of product usage. By using card-sorting exercises to illustrate the sanitary product journey, the team identified critical behavioral patterns:
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Behavioral Variance: While disposal habits varied, a common "workaround" emerged: users frequently use new packaging to wrap old products.
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Identifying the Pain Point: The research highlighted "the walk to the bathroom" as the moment of peak stigma. The perceived need to hide products in sleeves or special pouches revealed a deep-seated sense of embarrassment that the design needed to address.
Design Execution
From Utility to Delight
The final product design translates these research insights into tangible, "brave" UX solutions that prioritize both functionality and emotional well-being:
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Ergonomic Packaging: The tampon wrappers feature a unique triangular shape that sits stable on flat surfaces. This functional shift makes it effortless for users to repurpose the wrapper for hygienic disposal.
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Emotional Re-framing: In a bold move to overturn the perception of menstrual blood, the applicators feature integrated engravings. As these areas absorb blood, they reveal the brand pattern, transforming an experience often viewed as "gross" or "dirty" into a moment of magical, aesthetic discovery.
Narrative Strategy
Mika vs. The Patriarchy
The heart of the brand is its protagonist, Mika, a high-school student who transforms into a superhero. This narrative serves as a powerful metaphor for the lived experiences of people who menstruate:
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Thematic Personification: Villains in the comic represent real-world patriarchal forces, such as "Attack of Mansplainer," "Bropriation of the City," and "The Revenge of Manterrupter."
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Psychological Impact: Through this storytelling, the brand provides users with a sense of agency, reframing their daily social struggles into a heroic battle they can win.
The "Ripping" Transformation
The feminist ethos is integrated into the physical interaction of the packaging through a choreographed unboxing experience:
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Kinesthetic Feedback: The opening mechanism of the delivery box and individual packaging emulates a powerful "ripping gesture." * Haptic Metaphor: This specific motion mimics Mika’s superhero transformation in the comic, allowing the user to physically perform an act of empowerment and strength at the very start of their usage journey.
Conspicuous Design
From Concealment to Pride
Mighty Moon intentionally moves away from the "discreet" design language traditional to the industry, which often reinforces stigma through concealment:
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Artifacts as Weapons: The tampon carrier is sculpted after the weapon Mika uses to fight villains, transforming a utilitarian object into a symbol of power.
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Breaking Taboos: By making the carrier and packaging bold and conspicuous, the design encourages users to stop hiding their products. It successfully shifts the user’s relationship with their period from a source of embarrassment to a visible badge of empowerment.
"A rare discovery that transforms a routine moment into a shared celebration."
Localized Storytelling
The "Lucky Moon" Moment:
A Hidden Delight
The "Once in a Blue Moon" Logic
In a brilliant twist of Variable Rewards, a select few applicators feature a hidden heart engraving instead of the standard brand pattern. These are randomly distributed, ensuring the experience occurs only "once in a blue moon."
From Personal Discovery to Social Currency
When a user encounters the "Heart" applicator, the individual ritual transcends into a social one:
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The #LuckyMoon Campaign: Users are encouraged to capture and share their discovery on social media using the hashtag #luckymoon.
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Building Community: This micro-moment of delight breaks the isolation of the menstrual experience, fostering a supportive digital community where users celebrate their "lucky" moments together.
THE IMPACT
RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE
Mighty Moon is more than a product line; it is a holistic ecosystem designed to overturn decades of social stigma. By integrating physical artifacts with heroic storytelling, the project successfully transforms the user's relationship with their own body across three emotional pillars:
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From Dread to Anticipation: By aligning the biological cycle with a compelling comic series, the monthly routine is shifted from a burden to a narrative milestone.
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From Concealment to Pride: Through bold, conspicuous design, the "discreet" pouch is replaced by a symbolic weapon of empowerment, encouraging users to show rather than hide.
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From Disgust to Delight: By re-framing sensory experiences through aesthetic discovery (engravings) and gamification (#luckymoon), the brand turns a stigmatized event into a moment of personal and community celebration.
Ultimately, Mighty Moon proves that when design addresses the psychological as deeply as the functional, it has the power to transform a silenced routine into an empowering, shared ritual.
