The Freedom Condom Project

Background

One in three young Australians believe condoms are expensive

Condoms are essential in preventing STI transmission, but many young Australians don’t seek sexual health information and services due to stigma, cost, limited access to services and denial of risk.

Furthermore, a third of young people aged 15–29 years in Australia believes condoms are expensive. These issues are magnified in rural and remote regions that are affected by income and educational disparities, resulting in less access to sexual health services and higher chlamydia and teenage pregnancy rates.

THE ASK

How do we improve access to reproductive sexual health knowledge in NSW?

To address the issue, FamilyPlanning NSW (FPNSW) received funding to improve the reproductive sexual health knowledge in rural and remote areas in NSW, by providing access to free condoms.

The audience was young Australia’s under the age of 30 years across metro, regional and remote areas of NSW. Extra focus was given to lower socioeconomic, CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups.

The IDEA

NSW’s first direct-to-consumer free condom distribution program.

The program provided young Australian’s access to valuable sexual health information as well as free condoms/lube – all while remaining confidential. Visitors to the site are greeted with an interactive educational experience that relayed important sexual health information. This would lead to an eCommerce experience tailored to rural and remote areas, where the audience can order their free condoms.

To help tackle the stigma of this sensitive subject, the Freedom brought bought a youthful tone to an often dry and awkward/clinical subject. This was done in collaboration with the students at Wollongong Uni. Having them co-design the visual approach ensured the look and feel would resonate with a younger audience.

Site Highlights

An open and inviting platform experience for young people.

Intuitive, accessible UX and UI

Making information on consent, contraception, and reproductive sexual health easy to access and understand on all devices.

Geo targeted map

A geo targeted map

to connect young people to local health clinics in their area, so they can register for free condoms and lube.

An educational experience

A gated educational experience

that tests learned knowledge for eligible postcodes without local health clinics.

Privacy features

to allow young people to use an alias or even have their package sent to the local post office.

A ‘quick exit’ feature

A “quick exit” feature

for young people that use a shared computer.

AA accessibility

AA Accessibility

with special consideration made for diversity and inclusiveness.

View the learning experience

View the ordering process

ACCESSIBILITY

Designing for all users

We applied 'AA accessibility', an automated accessibility solution for ADA and WCAG compliance; chose accessible colour palettes, fonts and font sizes; and enabled downloadable ‘easy read’ PDFs across the site. Special consideration was made for diversity and inclusiveness.

Driving Awareness

Normalising the experience of buying condoms

To reach our audience, a highly targeted social campaign was used to drive awareness of in-clinic and online access to free condoms and connect the audience with the website.

Results