Sound of
Silence

Made to help people live better lives.

Sound of Silence:
Hearing Impaired Assisting App

Timeline

3 weeks +

My Role

Visual Designer and UX designer

User Research, UI/UX Design, Prototyping, Figma, Adobe Illustrator

Teammates

3 Master's of Information Management students from National Chengchi University

Methods & Tools

Problem

Several reports of sexual assault were accused to have happened in the Affiliated Hearing Impaired School of the National University of Tainan. After careful investigations by the authorities, the number of unreported sexual assault cases rose dramatically, indicating that the initially reported cases were just the tip of the icebergs. The scandals were later confirmed but only a few school faculties who were also the perpetrators were given minor charges compared to what they have done.

The incident gained publicity increasingly and people started to raise awareness of the fact that schools, which is considered the safest place for children, now turn to a place where adults are able to do whatever they want especially to children with disabilities. Later, the film “The Silent Forest” was released in 2020, documenting the outrageous incident.

Not only that Taiwan has several similar incidents like what has happened in the Affiliated Hearing Impaired School of the National University of Tainan, Korea's Gwangju Inhwa School which is a school for the hearing impaired has also happened decades-long record of sexually abusing including six teachers, including the principal, sexually molested or raped at least nine of their deaf-mute students between 2000 and 2003.

These were not the only cases that has happened but the cases that finally got the public's attention after individuals who bare to risk their lives to fight for justice and protect the minorities. I believe that are similar cases that may be happening right now in society, but how we utilize digital devices and applications as a weapon to protect ourselves and help our friends is what we wanted to do right now.

Core Value

Utilizing digitalized solution to help people who are hearing impaired overcome every day communication problems.

Target Users

Hearing Impaired: 360 million hearing impaired people in the world, accounting for 3.5% of the global population

Hearing Degenerate individuals: Seniors experience hearing degeneration usually after the age of 50. Hearing impaired usually encounter communication and social barriers, and also have a certain degree of impact on mental health

50% of Deaf children are sexually abused. [UNC]

1 in 3 deaf women are the victims of sexual assault. [ADWAS]

Deaf children are 5x as likely to be abused as Hearing children. [UK Study]

One study reported 54% of Deaf boys were sexually abused (CAPS stat) in comparison to only 10% of Hearing boys.

2 published statistics for abuse of girls rate between 55% and 91% of Deaf girls faced sexual abuse and reported the abuse.

Incidence of maltreatment, including neglect and physical and sexual abuse, is more than 25 percent higher among deaf and hard-of-hearing children than among hearing youths. [RIT]

Approximately 25% of hearing women in the United States experience rape in their life-time, whereas deaf women have been found to experience increased rates of assault consistent with other marginalized populations.

*These abuse statistcs are considered to be low as much abuse is not reported.*

Main Communication Barriers:

Hearing impaired have difficulties to pronounce clearly and correctly

Usually, hearing impaired can acknowledge sign language and lip language. However, due to the pandemic, masks restrict the way they communicate greatly.

Quantitative Research

To know how effective the mobile app is, we took 3 visits to the National Association of Deaf(R.O.C) Taiwan, and surveyed a total of 15 questions and collected responses from approximately 30 participants who are deaf or hair impaired.

1/5

During the visits, we asked questions regarding "How will the mobile app help them effectively?", "What circumstances will they need to use the app?" , "Where do they think they will use the app?" to help us develop our app while taking consideration of their potential concerns.

Some concerns resulted from the survey are that the app can designed to be as minimal as it can, without having too much elements on the user interface. Also, interactive elements such as buttons can be designed with more contrasting colors to help users recognize right away as they open the app. Efficiency for the app is crucial due to the reason that user who are hearing impaired or deaf usually needs immediate help or response in between dialogues in daily life.

Do you want a mobile app that can improve daily communications?

We ask 30 participants how can the mobile app bring positive impact to their daily lives.

What kind of dialogues do you find hardest to convey in daily life?

Do you think a mobile app that generates automatic dialogues can help improve your living condition?

What kind of help do you need when struggling to express your intentions?

15+
Questions

30+ Participants

3
Visits

Qualitative Research-Empathy Map

Sometimes I’m afraid to communicate with others because I can’t hear them clearly.

I’ve been using the hearing aid for the past 10 years and they cost too much to repair or buy a new one.

Feels

Thinks

I think the font in the app can be bigger.

I think the app should cover more locations for recommended text for every situation in daily lives.

I’m wondering whether the app can combine some online paying system that will benefits me even more.

Says

I like the app because it changes the way how I communicate with people.

I would recommend all my friends who suffered from hearing impaired to download this app right now.

The auto-generated text base on recommendation makes my life easier.

I don’t have to wear my hearing aid all the time anytime. I can start collecting voices around me whenever my app was on.

Does

Persona

Senior Grandpa

Name: Yunling Feng

Age: 95

Being able to respond to the person who’s talking to him quickly and efficiently
Communicating with people around him
A smart hearing aid that can filter the background noise

Goals

Location: Taiwan

Yunling Feng, 95, from Taiwan, has been suffered from hearing impaired for the past 20 years. He wants to communicate with the world without any barrier and enjoy the love of his family. He’s having trouble with the hearing aid that he’s using now because they can only work while he wears them. Moreover, the hearing aid can only will collect all the surrounding noise which will bother him sometimes.

Although he is wearing the audiphones, he could only hear people speaking if we are close to him. In addition, wearing masks only increases the barriers between communicating with the hearing impaired like Yunling Feng.

Frustrations

Limited options for a hearing aid in the current market
High cost of a pair of hearing aid (cost more than 300$ for a pair)

Values

Communicate effectively
Gain confidence and break barriers
Save money and time
The AI algorithm can assist users’ daily life

Easy access to any person who has a smartphone
Low cost when compared to hearing aid

Motivation

User Story Board

2. Users confront situation that requires communication with store clerk like checking out at the grocery store.

6. With little to no help from others, users achieve their goal independently and happily carries their groceries home.

1. Users arrive to their desired

destination.

3. Users takes out their phone and open Sound of Silence app.

4. While users are on their Sound of Silence app, they quickly find the most suitable dialogue.

5. Users then find their desired dialogue and broadcast it to the store clerk.

Original Design

Preset dialogue template

speech to text

text to speech

recommending corresponding word card

Intellectual dialogue template

Auto detect

Manual select

Select situation

Redesign

Research Summary:

Express Information

Receive Information

Demand Analysis

hearing impaired → can’t express smoothly in words

Hearing impaired have difficulties to pronounce correctly

lack of lip language ability、pandemic (need to wear mask)

→ lip language hard to recognize
→ unable to receive messages properly
→ communication barriers

Solution

create a question and answer template for a specific environment or situation, and click on the situation to display a dialogue option, shortening the communication time

Information Architecture:

Select situation

Select the level of hearing impaired

Auto detect

Manual select

Location selected

Relocate

Intellectual dialogue template

Preset dialogue template

speech to text

text to speech

recommending corresponding word card

Original Design

Select a situation:

Manual select:

Through collecting user surveys, we will list common situations for users. We summarize the locations (for example: restaurants, hospitals, stores) where daily communication appears.

Redesigned

Intellectual dialogue template:

Preset Dialogue template:

→ user experience survey consolidates common conversations in context

→design preset dialogue template base on user survey

User Demonstration:

Speech to Text:

Translating the voice into text immediately

→ allow hearing impaired to realize the conversation

Text to Speech:

Translating text into voice immediately

→ make the conversation more efficient for hearing impaired

Conversation Template Recommendation:

Language analysis:

Detect emotions and tone in written text, develop dialogue strategies and content

→ Enhancing the customer's service experience

Reflection

The Sound of Silence app, reducing communication barriers for the hearing impaired, has stimulated me in creating more assistive applications for people with disabilities. Through this project, I was able to interact with people who are hearing impaired and learn from their stories. Base on the research and data we conducted through our visits and interviews, we have a clearer view of what specific assistances the hearing impaired need the most in daily life.

Through this project, I became more empathetic and aware of the disabled people around me.

The Sound of Silence app not only enhances the quality of people’s lives, but also motivated me to create designs that make people’s lives better.

Sound of Silence