announcing arula’s product testing!
Exciting news here at Arula!
Hello everyone! We’re so excited to announce that we’ll be starting the second phase of our user testing soon. Once again, we’d like to thank our previous testers and supporters; without you, we wouldn’t be able to get to where we are today.
User testing is a key part in improving our prototypes with invaluable feedback. This time, we’re looking forward to welcoming new and old testers alike - we’ll be in touch soon. Our second round of user testing will officially start in November 2022! Stay tuned for further details - we’ll be posting those on social media, so go ahead and follow us there if you haven’t yet. In the first half of this year we conducted our very first user testing. We travelled through Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to test our first version of Arula’s breast prosthesis. This experience came with a lot of ups and downs but we were able to get some very beneficial feedback.
This is what we have learnt so far:
We’ve learned that 80% of our testers had a single mastectomy, with 30% wearing a breast prosthesis daily.
100% of testers spoke of clothing they wish they could still wear - something we’ll keep in mind as we continue to improve our prototype.
We found 8 common sizes amongst testers, with 60% of testers able to try on multiple prostheses throughout the testing process which was super helpful to see the major differences between sizes
In total, we produced 31 prostheses for our testers! Allowing us to test out a supply chain and manufacturing process
Adjustments to material required: silicone used left uncomfortable oily residue, and inner material used felt too hard.
Breasts aren’t symmetrical! Whilst using a universal shape was super great for testing and allowed people to try on multiple different products it did not curve nicely with the out edge of the bra
From those points, we’ve made the following adjustments to our prototype:
We’ve taken in feedback from our first testing phase and adjusted our prostheses for left and right breasts! We’re also looking to get our prototypes mass 3D printed to ensure consistent quality and efficient production.
We are making some material adjustments so that the prosthesis will be as comfortable as ever!
This testing phase will focus on gathering further tester feedback, data photogrammetry, and insight on our left/right breast prosthesis.
We can’t wait to welcome our testers once more and test out these changes! If you’re interested in being a tester, and you meet the criteria below, please reach out below - we’ll be happy to get in touch with you soon.
Arula’s user testing eligibility criteria
Based in Australia
Both single and double mastectomies are eligible
Have had at least 6 months after mastectomy to allow scars to heal. Single and double mastectomies both qualify.
Willing to test - includes having measurements and testimonies taken! We’ll include measurement guides for new testers.