VisAid
VisAid is an innovative Augmented Reality (AR) application created to test how AR can assist individuals with profound hearing loss. This project served as the final thesis for my Masters in User Experience Engineering.
Project
Masters Thesis
Role
Research | Design | Testing
Medium
Augmented Reality
Date
September 2023
Here is some context…
In the UK, a significant portion of people who could benefit from hearing aids don't use them. This is because regular hearing aids struggle in busy environments or with multiple speakers, and some people feel self-conscious about using them.
This introduces a huge language barrier as only a few people know and use British Sign Language (BSL).
900,000
Deaf in the UK
1/3
Only 1/3 use Hearing Aids
151,000
BSL Users
How I went about solving it…
After digging deep into research and studies, I found a big challenge for people with hearing difficulties: the Cocktail-Party Problem. This happens when there's a lot of noise and multiple people talking, making it hard for regular hearing aids to figure out who's speaking.
That's where Augmented Reality comes in. To prove its potential, I came up with a concept app with some special features.
Live Captioning
Displays live speech to text of the user in focus
Face Focus
Highlights the speaker in focus in the user's view
Danger Alerts
Alert the user of sirens and bells
Modes
Gives the freedom to switch features
Getting into design…
Designing a straightforward and user-friendly interface for a rather new technology posed a challenge. Leveraging insights from game design and mixed reality interfaces, I conducted on an iterative process to refine the application's designs.
Userflow of the Application
Initial UI sketches
UI Elements of the Application
Mock videos
iPad Prototype
It is time for some testing…
With the designs and materials produced above, the application underwent testing in two phases. Initially, a group of nine participants with normal hearing assessed its usability. Subsequently, a study involving three Deaf participants was conducted to evaluate the application's value for this specific user group.
Study 1
Focusing on Application Usability
9 Participants
Study 2
Focusing on Application Effectiveness
3 Participants
Study session
And the result…
The app was an immediate success with the Deaf participants as they were eager to try out the finished application. Captioning was the most successful feature of the application, especially with the speaker highlight. There were a few design suggestions that popped up during the study.
Results
Deaf Participants
Captioning
Danger Alerts
Others
10 of 12 agreed they would use the application in the future.
Only 50% of the participants feel that ‘Modes’ are useful.
So much more to be done…
Even though the design-centered investigation may have indicated that AR could be an excellent solution to address some key issues with hearing aids, comprehensive research must be carried out using a prototype application in an AR head-mounted display to gather conclusive proof of the app's effectiveness. A substantial advancement in hardware technology is also necessary to reduce the form factor to resemble traditional glasses, preventing self-stigmatization and promoting user acceptance.