One of the questions we get asked quite often is: with all the vibrators available on the market, why on earth did you decide to make Uno, a toy for beginners?
We at Nancy are on a mission to break taboos and start conversations around female sexual pleasure. But we never originally planned to start a vibrator company. It all began with a casual dinner conversation about sex and sex toys. We realised that people have different attitudes towards pleasure - some are comfortable, some are curious, and some are conflicted. We wanted to explore why people don't buy sex toys and whether they enjoy them.
Let’s be honest, sex for most is a delicate, intimidating and often shameful subject, and the road to pleasure is filled with horrific-looking dildos (all 12-inches of them), unrealistic expectations and outright false information. To understand the issues people face with existing vibrators, we decided to buy the best vibrators in the market 🛍️🛍️, those with thousands of positive reviews… and no, we did not use them all on ourselves. We reached out to friends around us and recruited them to be our sex toy testers (yes, you read that right)
Do you want to test a sex toy?
Each team member was tasked to reach deep into their network and find people who are a. willing to admit that they have not tried a sex toy before, and then b. open to trying one and have us ask them in-depth and highly personal questions afterwards.
Now, we don't know what kind of friends you have, but for us, it's proven to be an eye-opening experience and a great testament to our friendships. (Rumour has it that one of our team members has lost a friend or two over "a creepy Whatsapp message about sex toys".)
After some coercing, luring, and light-threatening, we assembled the perfect group of testers. Each brave soul was given one randomly assigned vibrator and asked to evaluate the experience right from the moment they unboxed it to, well, you know, the happy ending. There were giggles, awkward blushes, and much raw, unfiltered feedback, but most importantly, there were enlightening conversations. It felt liberating to finally be able to speak about something so universal, so human, yet, a topic so shamed.
“It's like putting an earthquake into my vagina.” 🤯
It’s not every day that you hear that some vibrators feel more like a natural disaster than wonder. Thanks to our brutally honest testers, the feedback sessions were nothing short of hilarious and mind-blowing. We also realised that all these women were ready and curious to try out a toy; they just lacked a push or an excuse. After countless focus group sessions and long nights of analysing feedback, we began to see trends.
On strength - Most toys are wayyyyy too strong
50% found the vibration level to be too strong, describing them as “too much”, “strong vibration was not enjoyable”, and “smallest intensity was already too high; it should be marketed as a shoulder massager.”
On unboxing - packaging matters more than we thought:
“It felt like I was opening some tech geek electronic product which is not a feeling I'd like to associate with buying/ready-to-use a sex toy". “Sleek packaging but not sensual, felt like unboxing a Fitbit or cold wallet storage…”. “The canvas bag makes it a little less sexy. Could perhaps replace it with a softer, smoother material."
On modes - just keep it simple:
“Too many vibration settings to choose from; button was not easy to find either.” “Switching between intensity levels was a nightmare”, “Need better button system that is easy to press.”
To summarise, women wanted a simple yet versatile product that allowed for exploration and adapted to their unique bodies. They desired a toy that respected their journey to pleasure, not rushing them towards a finish line. All these insights led to our three design mandatories:
-
The look mattersI repeat, the look matters - because nothing is more of a turn-off than putting a gigantic octopus tentacle-like dildo in your most intimate area and having it make loud sucking noise that reminds you of a ventilator (But hey, if you are into octopuses, you be you)
- Rock your world, but not in an earthquake kind of way While a lot of products in the market swear to give strength and intensity, they forget that gentle foreplay, the slow build-up are a lot more critical for women. Starting too strong is what ruins the moment. So we noted this and investigated different ways to engineer gentle, rumbling vibrations.
- Keep it simpleMost of our testers would rather focus on the steamy firefighter scene in their head, than which buttons on their toy to push. The key is to offer something to keep women in the moment, not take away from it.
And it’s then that the Nancy squad swore allegiance to these guiding principles to the quest for pleasure… Next up, we will dive into the hilarious debate around vibrators, the vulnerable opening up of the deepest darkest secrets in Nancy’s journey of creating Uno.
Consider subscribing to our Newsletter and be the first to know about promotions, new product releases and pleasure tips!
Love what you’re seeing? Begin your self-love journey today with your very own Uno here.
