Cliterate

The process started with the client and design team looking through the scientific literature to find descriptions, sketches, diagrams and scans to help them start to construction in CAD a 3d model of the vulva, clitoris, vagina, urethra and the pelvic bone they sit on or around.

First stages of the project were about getting the anatomy correct. The client had formed a focus group of international experts in female sexual functioning she called ‘the International Cliterati” that she took iterations of anatomy development to and got feedback.

A break-through came when the concept for a sphere was realised. It sat comfortably in the hand so the other hand was free to demonstrate. There were iterations of development to get the ‘parts’ sitting at the right angle for display or tolerancing. Initially the first iterations were 3d printed. There was at early stages a discussion that the client could potentially batch product models if she didn’t want to commit to the costs associated with developing injection moulded parts. These initial prints became helpful in assessing the model as an intuitive product, with layers that peel away to reveal the underlying biological functions or parts. As the product developed the client took iterations to local sexual health educators to trial these stages and give feedback.

After the client committed to injection moulded manufacture X-Product joined the team and finalised the best ways of clipping or joining layers. The team were able to adjust components, finish and colour as parts came back from early tooling runs. Magnets were trialed and proved to be the easiest way of peeling back layers. The design team were always mindful that the end result was not just a correct anatomical model but an interactive educational tool and ensured the development of a successful exemplar.

With Cliterate there are 2 primary User groups. The person using the product to discuss or demonstrate sexual health or the people listening to the discussion or demonstration. In developing the product, it was important to continually check the needs of both groups were being met while resolving technical details through iterative prototyping.

The demonstrator as a health professional needs to be sure the product was built from correct and reliable anatomical information. They needed to be able to hold the product in one hand and pull apart the products layers in the other without the product ‘falling’ apart or getting stuck. Once the break-through concept of the sphere started to be developed that allowed for comfortable hand holding, team then spent countless iterations developing a smooth interaction between product components and demonstrator, even as first parts were coming back from the tooling.

In a clinical setting the person being demonstrated to needs to visually understand the parts of the body they are looking at and being discussed. For people with a range of developmental processing or acquired cognitive impairments, or neurodiverse clients it is important that the product is literal and realistic. For health professionals, such as nurses it is important that the product is realistic as it can be used to demonstrate how medical equipment may interact with particular parts of the body. For sex education with teenagers the interactive nature of the product allows for engaging and respectful discussions around sexual health, consent and pleasure. Cliterate satisfies a range of user requirements and diverse types of discussion. Cliterate evidences that product design as a method used in research projects can be the bridge that translates scientific knowledge and specific user requirements into products where research can become tangible and useful to the public or specific professions

The project was an initial collaboration between Industrial Design researcher, Dr Judith Glover and her team, Charlie Richardson and Cara Joran-Miller at RMIT and client Anita Brown Major at Thrive Re-hab. Dr Glover has specialised in what she describes as Design and Sexual Health Innovation. Taking design R+D principals applied to areas such as Med Tech or Social Innovation and applying them to difficult problems in sexual health that can have both complex physical attributes and taboo social meanings. Sexual health has huge implications on a person life, yet as a society we shy away from these areas due to long standing social taboos. Correct information about sexual health or practice, including consent and pleasure are more valuable than ever in a society awash with misinformation. The client Anita Brown Major specialises in the sexual education of health professionals, teenagers and her own disability clients. She was using a home-made vulva and clitoral model to demonstrate but it wasn’t accurate. It also was sown from fabric and while interactive could be confusing to people with intellectual disabilities who needed realistic and literal depictions of body parts. Historically, women’s sexuality and sexual health was made invisible socially and medically. At the beginning of this project no scientifically accurate model of female sexual functioning existed outside of the scientific literature depicted as diagrams, sketches and scans. By the end of the project other 3d virtual models exist in the research domain but not any accurate and comprehensive educational tools that are widely available to public, schools and health professionals. It is a unique and innovative product. The team has developed a tool that is intuitive, interactive and scientifically accurate to enable relaxed and respectful conversations about correct health procedures or sexual practice and health. This product demonstrates social innovation and progress.

This product will have long lasting social impact. At a societal scale the internet has enabled disrespectful, harming and misinformed depictions of sexual practice. Factually correct conversations with teenagers about respect, consent and sexual health are more important than ever. At an historical scale the lack of visibility or medical research on female sexual functioning is astounding, as is the huge gap in knowledge about male sexual functioning and female sexual functioning. This product not only supports education and discussion of respectful and correct sexual information, it also augments the scientific field of anatomy by producing an accurate model in 3 dimensions of female sexual functioning. Products can contain powerful messages as well as existing as technological objects and Cliterate exists as an empowering example of combating the historical invisibility of female sexuality and sexual functioning.

Since Cliterate has launched the client has presented the project at least 15 local and global sexual health conferences. The client’s group of sexual health experts that she called the ‘International Cliterati’ was featured on the 7.30 report in 2024 in a story about reclaiming and developing female sexual knowledge and research. The Victoria State Library will feature the product as part of an exhibition highlighting misinformation that they predict will be seen by over 200 thousand people in 2025. This tool will have profound impact in the practices of sexual health professionals in addressing a topic that can be awkward with an accurate and interactive teaching tool that is easy to use and understand. It is a unique and unusual example of the use of the product design process as a method applied to complex and socially impactful research problems. It evidences that design research can tackle socially taboo topics to produce excellent outcomes that are globally innovative and impactful.