Category: Case Studies

Introduction

PherDal is the only fully sterile at-home insemination kit on the market, designed to provide a safe and effective alternative for individuals and couples trying to expand their families. My role in this project involved creating an introductory animation, video editing, infographics for FDA application, and a detailed “How To” video that clearly demonstrated the product’s unique benefits and usage.

The Challenge

PherDal is a unique tool that we needed to show how it stood out from from traditional interuterine insemination (IUI) and other intercervical insemination (ICI) kits by highlighting its unique features and emphasizing its sterility. Clear communication was essential to demonstrate the product’s method of delivery to the cervix, maintaining user safety, and building trust with the intended audience.

Process and Development

To ensure the animations would clearly communicate PherDal’s benefits, I undertook a detailed development process:

1. Initial Research and Concept Sketches: I researched PherDal’s materials, their social media content, and similar products to understand the existing market. Sketches and initial concepts focused on visual clarity and alignment with PherDal’s brand.
2. Design Prototypes and Early Animations: Using the initial concepts, I developed prototype animations and mockups. Here, I focused on conveying the product’s sterility, syringe design, and comparison with IUI and ICI options. Early animations included annotations for anatomical accuracy and product detail clarity.
3. Client Feedback and Iteration: Working closely with Dr. Jenn, I iterated on the animations, incorporating feedback such as model adjustments, highlighting sterility measures, and using realistic models of sperm to demonstrate insemination.

Final Animations and Infographics

1. FDA Clearance Introductory Animation

This animation introduced the product, highlighting PherDal’s unique features like the syringe design and the fully sterile environment. It set the tone for building trust with users and provided essential visuals for FDA clearance. This helped streamline the clearance process, making PherDal one of the first products of its kind to receive FDA approval.

2. Educational Infographics

Infographics are designed to clearly showcase the product’s uniqueness and effectiveness without relying on complex verbal explanations. They emphasize the “conception gap”-the distance between the hope of conceiving and achieving it-and illustrate how PherDal helps individuals bridge this gap. Through simple, engaging visuals, the infographics communicate the product’s sterile, user-friendly, and scientifically-backed approach to conception, making it an accessible and trusted solution for those trying to conceive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6CK_bjScU

3. How-To Video

The instructional animation provided step-by-step guidance for users on maintaining sterility and correct usage. This video further reinforced PherDal’s safety and efficacy, educating users on its advantages over IUI and other ICI options.

Results and Recognition

These materials not only contributed to PherDal’s FDA clearance but also supported its marketing efforts. Dr. Jenn praised the visuals, noting how they captured the essence of her product and vision. Additionally, PherDal was featured in Time Magazine as one of the Inventions of the Year, in part due to the clarity and appeal of its branding.

Key Takeaways

This project underscored the value of versatile animations in medical device marketing and regulatory approval. Collaborating closely with PherDal’s team enabled me to tailor each visual for multiple uses, from FDA applications to consumer education.

In early December of 2019, Dr. Maurine Neiman invited me to the Neiman Lab at the University of Iowa, where I had the honor of observing a remarkable once in a lifetime mutation of the Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a species of freshwater snail native to New Zealand.  

Upon reaching the lab, Dr. Neiman told me that they had found a one in a million find and wanted to have it illustrated and archived. They didn’t feel comfortable putting this snail asleep to get photographs because the anesthesia could kill her. The discovery was a female snail which they named Sinistra due to her left-oriented shell (https://uiowa.edu/stories/marissa-roseman-research-discovery). Sinistra had a genetic twin, Dextra, whom I was able to use to compare Sinistra. Dextra would be my control, and I will identify her in this blog as the “standard” morphology of Potamopygrus antipodarum. My original goal was to compare and contrast Sinistra’s and Dextra’s morphologies.   

Upon initial observation, Sinistra had a whorl projection to the left rather than to the right, which is the standard projection of a whorl. Sinistra also had a curvier roundness to her shell body and a kind of fringe towards the mantle’s edge, while Dextra’s shell was more angular, and had a ridge along the shell body and whorl.

While watching Sinistra, I also noticed her movements and observed that Sinistra’s mobility seemed to be awkward and hindered. Most snails move rather smoothly by contracting their foot muscle, and this allows very smooth movement forward. Sinistra seemed to struggle and had to wiggle around a lot to be able to move forward.  

My hypothesis was Sinistra’s mobility issue was due to her shell. Sinistra’s shell seemed to be cumbersome to her, and this was particularly evident when Sinistra was placed on her back and struggled to flip back over as quickly as her counterpart Dextra.

After several hours of observation, I created a shell comparison of Sinistra and Dextra focused on the color, shape, and form of their shells.

I was given access to an archive of photographs and videos of Sinistra and Dextra for repetitive and slower viewing. I first watched footage of Sinistra walking on repeat in slow motion. While scrubbing through the footage, I was able to see Sinistra turn and lift her shell on top of her body before starting to move and kept it raised during her spurts of movement. 

If the reduced mobility was genuinely due to the shell, I needed to get a numerical comparison for Sinistra’s and Dextra’s shells!

I used archived footage to see both snails profile views, which I measured and sketched. From those sketches, I compared the snails’ height, shell slope, and apex projection.

The difference in shell height was obvious. 

To measure angles, I downloaded the app AngleMeter.

In the app, I was able to download my illustrations and place the digital compass on the slope measuring the most top point of the apex. To measure the apex projection, I used the tip of the nose for the anchor point and had the projection mark on the very tip of the whorl. 

I observed:

Sinistra had a taller height than Dextra

Sinistra’s slope was more severe at 18 degrees, as Dextra’s slope was 6 degrees.  

Sinistra’s apex projection was more severe than Dextra’s as 25 degrees, while Dextra’s was 23 degrees.  

These measurements prove that Sinistra’s shell was significantly different than Dextra’s and certainly made flipping over from her back more difficult.

The hight and angles put Sinistra higher up from the ground and made it harder for her to reach and find enough balance to flip back over. Due to the largeness to her shell and odd angles, I suspect simply for comfort, Sinistra lifted her shell to allow a little more freedom to move.  

Sinistra was a remarkable find, and her existence shows another example of the impact of genetics and their mutations.

Why a poster?

Initially, we wanted to archive Sinistra’s existence, but our scope had grown. Dr. Neiman and I decided a poster would be an effective way to show what I had deduced regarding Sinistra’s mobility and provide the lab with something special to commemorate such a find!
A poster tells a story. What was our story?
My collaboration with the Neiman lab was almost purely visual. My notes were mainly sketches, and my research was done in person and with video footage provided by the lab. We wanted our communication to reflect that.

A poster would tell the story!

My story timeline:
– Comparison
– Mobility
– Hypothesis
– Research Results

The poster needed to reflect my timeline in some way, so I started sketching out the poster format with my timeline of discovery in mind.

The first one showed my timeline in reverse, displaying the mobility and research first, but I didn’t like the line drawings on top. I actively wanted to use the poster to display Sinistra.

The final poster was 18″x24″, laminated, and is now affixed to a wall in the Neiman Lab.

I was 22 the last time I worked in a lab. It was particularly nostalgic and rewarding to collaborate in such a way to contribute to Sinistra’s research. Sinistra has since passed, so knowing I helped visually record her moment in time has been a unique and humbling experience within itself.

Click here for more information on the Neiman Lab and Sinistra.

Be sure to follow Dr. Neiman on twitter @mneiman for more snail updates!