MY ROLE
Product Designer
THE TEAM
Solo Project
TIMELINE
May 2023 - June 2023
OVERVIEW
Here Hear! is a user-centric design initiative rooted in firsthand experience, as an individual with moderately severe hearing loss, with the challenges of the hard of hearing and deaf community. Inspired by the complexities of sign language and speech learning, this solo project offers a streamlined user flow suitable for all ages. With a focus on addressing key community pain points, Here Hear! aims to bridge significant communication gaps efficiently.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The hard of hearing and deaf community face significant challenges in communication due to the intricacies of sign language and the difficulties associated with speech learning. These barriers often result in feelings of isolation, misunderstandings, and limited access to resources and opportunities. Moreover, the vast demographic range, from young children to seniors, further complicates the design of universally effective solutions.
HMW design a simple user-friendly interface that caters to all age groups within the hard of hearing and deaf community, simplifying their communication experience and promoting inclusivity?
HMW design a simple user-friendly interface that caters to all age groups within the hard of hearing and deaf community, simplifying their communication experience and promoting inclusivity?
RESEARCHING PROBLEM SPACE
According to a study done by the National Center for Health Statistics, over 90% of families have reported out-of-pocket expenses for special need education. Additionally, average special need tuition ranges from $20,000 to $40,000.
We need a more accessible way to integrate education into the community
ANALYZING MARKET & COMPETITORS
Competitive benchmarking revealed an over-saturated market competing on identical feature sets.
WHAT IS NAMP?
Looking at the popular players within the space, I discovered a similar feature offering across the apps that is centred around video lessons. I hypothesised that this might be a key feature in sign language classes and that there is an opportunity to position ourselves differently through approach.
.jpg)
SignSchool
ASL
.jpeg)
Lingvano
.jpeg)
The ASL App
ASL Bloom
.jpeg)
Intersign
ASL Bloom - Gamifying Sign Language Learning
Intersign - Most comprehensive sign view option
With these products widely available,
why do people still struggle to learn and communicate with sign?
📜 Vocab-based curriculum
Existing apps focus on learning new vocabulary in signs rather than aiming for daily use in conversations.
🌱 Targeted towards beginners
Finding the right course beyond beginner levels can be challenging if you're not a first-time sign language learner
📦 Cluttered interface with unnecessary features
Contains questionable features that many users will never use, leading to confusion and extra steps when searching for specific functions.
USER RESEARCH
Interviews with 10+ participants shared the struggles of the HOH and the deaf community.
WHAT IS NAMP?
I conducted semi-structured interviews with target users to validate our initial findings and further understand how people currently deal with day-to-day struggles regarding their communication.
USER PERSONA
Consolidating the key insights into 2 personas.
APPROACHING A SOLUTION
Delivering a personalised learning experience with diverse content to empower the hard-of-hearing and deaf community 🌳
WHAT IS NAMP?
My design prioritizes the progression of educational journeys with a keen focus on accessibility. Recognizing the diverse learning needs, I ensure our platform is universally accessible and intuitive. In fostering this inclusive environment, I celebrate each advancement in education, regardless of its size.
How Might We...
Design Goals
The research also helped us define our focus areas for the redesign.
Visual
Enhance motivation and comprehension through lucid visualizations, empowering our users with interactive and effortless learning
Coherent
Streamline the educational journey by eliminating distractions, ensuring continuous focus and seamless learning for our users.
Simple
Crafting an intuitive user experience that's effortlessly navigable, eliminating barriers and complexities in education.
FEATURE PRIORITISATION
Limited resources forced us to re-prioritise our features
SYSTEM ARCHICTECUTRE
Consideration for our persona's context directed a user flow focusing on minimum steps and time.
WHAT IS NAMP?
Mapping out key path scenarios that gets our users to their most prominent use cases within the least amount of steps.
LOW FIDELITY
Developing low-fidelity prototypes for usability test, utilizing a card UI to highlight visual interactions.
SOLUTION
Developing the final MVP
WHAT IS NAMP?
The MVP is in Korean due to the client's request and currently is in process of being translated to English.
KEY LEARNINGS
Through user interviews, I've learned something important: not all the features I brainstormed are actually needed. It's about prioritizing the most important ones. Even though I may have seen every idea I brainstormed as significant, I realized that having too many choices can overwhelm the users. So, I realized that it's sometimes better to focus on just a few key features to make things more simple and efficient for everyone.