Increasing Family Planning Uptake in Kenya Through a Digital Marketplace: A Case Study in Human Centered Design

Despite the clear benefits to women, families, and society, family planning is not universal. In 2015,12 percent of married or in-union women who want to prevent or delay pregnancy were are not currently using a method of family planning in 2015. In Africa, this rate is even higher, at 24 percent. In order to meet the unmet need for family planning, new approaches to service delivery are required. A critical question for anyone interested in ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services like family planning is how to create new products, services and implementation models that work for users. The objective of this case study is to describe how Human Centered Design (HCD) was used to develop a digital marketplace for family planning in Kenya, called Nivi, and draw lessons for broader application to global health challenges. By using the HCD approach, we sought to better understand the challenges users face with the Nivi platform and the opportunities that exist to make improvements. By incorporating HCD, we were able to build a service with greater potential for use and usability for Nivi users. We believe that taking an HCD approach allowed us to build a product that has the potential to meet the unmet need for family planning services in Kenya. This case study highlights the strengths and challenges to inform the use of HCD for other health applications in emerging markets.