Meaning-making matters in product design: users' sensory perceptions and experience evaluations of long-acting vaginal gels and intravaginal rings.
OBJECTIVE
Users' sensory perceptions and experiences of intravaginal products can inform acceptability and adherence. Focusing on the meanings women derive from formulation/device characteristics facilitates developers' design iterations toward optimizing user experience. We investigated how users of long-acting gels and intravaginal rings (IVRs) impute meaning to characteristics that may affect future product use.


METHODS
Focus groups were conducted with contraceptive IVR and vaginal lubricant users. Current perceptibility science and historical theory on the cultural acceptability of fertility regulating methods informed the analysis.


RESULTS
A total of 21 IVR users and 29 lubricant users attended focus groups in which they manipulated products in their hands and discussed reactions to product characteristics. Participants used prior product experiences and sensory perceptions of prototype manipulations to inform meanings about product properties and performance for pregnancy, disease prevention, comfort, and perceived efficacy. The meanings derived from product characteristics depended on why the product would be used; a characteristic deemed problematic in one risk context may be considered preferable in another.


CONCLUSIONS
Intravaginal product users create narratives that ascribe influence or causality to product characteristics. These meanings, whether correct or incorrect biologically, will shape vaginal product acceptability, use, and effectiveness.


CONCLUSIONS
Long-acting and sustained-release drug delivery systems will be part of the multipurpose prevention continuum. Developers must consider how sensory experiences and culturally salient assumptions shape the meanings users make of product design characteristics. Those meanings will ultimately impact use and effectiveness.
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Electronic address: rrosen@lifespan.org.
Rochelle K
RK
Rosen
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Electronic address: jvandenberg@lifespan.org.
Jacob J
JJ
van den Berg
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Electronic address: svargas@lifespan.org.
Sara E
SE
Vargas
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Electronic address: natalisenocak@gmail.com.
Natali
N
Senocak
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Electronic address: julia.shaw@gmail.com.
Julia G
JG
Shaw
ImQuest BioSciences, Inc., 7340 Executive Way, Suite R, Frederick, MD 21704, USA. Electronic address: rbuckheit@imquestbio.com.
Robert W
RW
Buckheit
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Electronic address: ksmith20@lifespan.org.
Kelley Alison
KA
Smith
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital, Coro West, Suite 309, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI 02906, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Electronic address: kmorrow@lifespan.org.
Kate Morrow
KM
Guthrie
D000282:Administration, Intravaginal; D000328:Adult; D003267:Contraception / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D003268:Contraception Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003274:Contraceptive Devices, Female; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D013089:Spermatocidal Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D014622:Vaginal Creams, Foams, and Jellies / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D013089:Spermatocidal Agents; D014622:Vaginal Creams, Foams, and Jellies
Intravaginal ring; Meaning-making; Microbicides; Multipurpose prevention technologies; STI prevention; Vaginal gel