IoT solution for the deaf and hearing impaired community

Mialy Rand

Completed work

Mobile Designer

UX Designer

Figma

Miro

Notion

Overview 🔎 As a hearing impaired or deaf, you can stay aware of what’s going on around you, right on your wrist.

Not hearing the phone ringing, someone knocking on the door or worse, the fire alarm, all these everyday noises, which seem commonplace, represent a real challenge for part of the population. This is why a group of students in their last year of a Master's degree, as part of an entrepreneurial project, wanted to find a solution. I was asked to help them create an IoT solution for these deaf and hearing impaired people whose daily life in their home is difficult.

Problem & process 🛣

The main challenge was to provide an easy to use and inexpensive solution for the hearing impaired and deaf so that they can be aware, in real time, of the noises in their home. Moreover, the time given to propose a first version of the solution was very short: 1 month. In order to deliver qualitative deliverables, we moved forward in Agile mode.

But how to propose a simple and effective solution so that the hearing impaired and the deaf can be aware of what is happening around them, without necessarily having a connected house or investing in expensive objects?

To answer this question, I followed a process in 6 steps: do more research, discover the problem, understand the users, put my ideas on paper, test and repeat, and design the solution.

The solution 🤝

Results 🎁

100% of people believe that this product can significantly improve their daily life. In particular with regard to the detection of surroundings noises

80% of people are likely to adopt this solution

5/5 of people find the product easy to use

I have to constantly check to see if the microwave is finished or the toaster. All of these seemingly simple tasks become much more complicated and mostly frustrating on a daily basis. 🗣

Takeaways 📣

What I learned? For this project, I worked closely with a product manager, which allowed me to have a global vision of the product. Based on the product playbook, the 4D framework and the Agile method, I was able to have a more concrete vision of product development.

Mistakes and struggles One of the most challenging parts of this project was to really put myself in the shoes of deaf and hearing impaired people. Since I was not in charge of the research, I had to do more research in parallel to better understand these people.

What would I do different next time? Since the solution is adapted on a connected watch and on an application, I think it is better for the next times to dig more on how to make a responsive design.