The objective of project Provo is to provide equal opportunity for professional inclusion to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
SCOPE
Discovering the relation between Communication and Inclusivity
My curiosity to understand the relationship between communication and inclusivity lead me on a journey to explore the role of communication in today's world. What I discovered was the severe professional isolation faced by the deaf community due to the disconnect between the medium of communication.
Tools
Customized Research Toolkit
Principle
Illustrator
Photoshop
Hand sketches
Duration
5 Weeks
Key Skills
Design research
Competitive analysis
Prototyping
Wireframing
Visual Design
Motion Graphics
Usability testing
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Cultural immersion
Immersed myself in learning about the deaf community. Also studied the current products and services that they use to communicate with the world around them. These immersions led me to my key stakeholders and inspired the research tool kit I designed further in the project.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Stakeholders Interviewed
Reeba and Emily
Emily, a 35-Year-old female who is born deaf
Reeba, her mother, works as a Deaf services librarian at SF
Jhonny
26 Year old Male, Deaf services librarian at SF public library
Amanda
23-Year old female who is deaf since birth. Now works as a team leader at Mozzeria
INTERVIEWS
Empowering stakeholders to share their stories using alternative research methodologies
Conducted immersive interviews with three main stakeholders from the deaf community. Designed a research toolkit using alternative research methodologies to interview deaf and hard of hearing participants successfully.
Worksheets and Probe Cards
Designed easy to fill in worksheets and probe cards that could be flexibly used based on the direction of the conversation.
Text Apps
Used a text app to chat. The participants were comfortable with this medium and felt empowered using it.
USER JOURNEY MAPS
Identified 'professional challenges' as a recurring concern amongst all their experiences.
User journey maps of all three stakeholders depict the challenges faced by each of them at different stages of life. 'Professional challenges' emerged as a dominant theme while comparing the three journey maps.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE STUDY
Identified the gap area within the current product and service landscape
1.
Job opportunities for members of the deaf community are few and hard to identify, leading to severe underemployment.
2.
Lack of availability, consistency, and cost factor convert existing interpretation medium into a barrier for professional inclusion.
3.
Platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed offer a base infrastructure that can be extended to provide end to end job support for members of the deaf community.
INSIGHTS
HMW design a platform that acts as a hub for all the support and resources required by people who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout their professional journey.
PROVO
POCKET INTERPRETER
Leap motion sensor and machine learning based ASL interpreter
PROVO APP
Filters jobs listed on Linkedin that are appropriate for people who are deaf or hard of hearing
FUNCTIONALITY
The pocket interpreter uses the Leap Motion sensor to detect hand gestures and movements.
Machine learning can be leveraged to personalize the pocket interpreter by training it to detect gestural nuance which differs from person to person signing.
I experimented with a code that was shared by a team that worked on a similar project for a hackathon. However could not go too far due to my cursory
coding skills.
Code source : http://blog.leapmotion.com/asl-tutor-teaching-sign-language-leap-motion-machine-learning/
Leap Motion Sensor | Machine learning | API
PROVO
A platform that enables professional inclusion via well-matched job listings and machine learning based interpretation.
USER-FLOW
Overall user flow, highlighting the relationship between the app and pocket interpreter and links between various usage scenarios and tasks.
KEY INTERACTIONS
Integrating illustrations and micro motions to make the text-heavy app engaging.
The UI follows the principle of being clean and minimal to reduce the cognitive load on its users
The color scheme and typography is chosen to give PROVO a formal yet trustworthy appeal. Illustrations are used to boost the visual appeal of an otherwise text-heavy app and to highlight the strong sense of community shared by the members.
The language, words, and tone of voice are crafted based on studying the proper terminologies used by government and the deaf community to represent their condition
ONBOARDING
Introducing various
features of the app to its
user through illustrations
PROFILE CREATION
User adds specific details of their condition which helps the app filter appropriate job opportunities
TRAINING MODE
The user initiates the training mode to personalize the machine learning based pocket interpreter
INTERVIEW MODE
The user initiates interview mode in order to seamlessly communicate with the interviewer
VALIDATION AND TESTING
Collaborating with members of the community to build a reliable product.
Testing micro-interactions, key features, and overall flow. Obtaining feedback to iterate further and design an impactful solution
Johnny, Member of the deaf community
“ I like that I can review a companies inclusion policy”
Reeba, Librarian/Interpreter
“It's amazing what you have shown me so far. It's a good start. I’m really curious to see how effective the motion detectors would be”
Kristine, Product designer at LinkedIn
“How does the bar used to determine ASL proficiency level work? whats the scale ”
KEY LEARNINGS
Collaboration, Design accessible and inclusive UI and leveraging Analogous inspiration
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Collaborating and learning new means of communication, based on what your research participants are comfortable with.
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Studying UI principle of designing for accessibility to create an app that suits the usage and behavior patterns of the user group.
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Leveraging technology to foster inclusion.
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Synthesizing large volumes of data, building checkpoints and scoping the project at regular intervals to design efficiently.
PROJECTS
TTC
RBI
Provo
Mitel
Nordstrom
P - Dexa
Seek
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Lumen
New Narrative
Vital
CONTACT
If you are interested in my work, have an opportunity to discuss or just want to say hello! Please contact me via any medium that suits you.
Tel: (510) 240 0097