Year
2020
Type
MVP Mobile Application
Role
UX/UI Designer
Team
Solo
Duration
One week sprint
The challenge
For this week-long project for Ironhack, the goal was to implement new functionality to an existing mobile application.
Based on user needs we had to use UX and UI Design to find an adequate solution in a very short time inspired by the design sprint.
My goal
My specific mission was to design a feature for deaf and hearing-impaired people for the Spotify mobile app.
I chose Spotify because it was challenging to work on a powerful app I use every day, and that already gives a very nice music experience. It was also an opportunity to explore the sensory aspect of technology.
Agenda
To complete this challenge and ensure that my feature was valuable, I based my work on the following design sprint planning:
1. Empathize
Secondary researches & Interviews.
1. Empathize
Secondary researches & Interviews.
2. Ideate
Define the problem.
3. Prototype, Test & Iterate
Mid-fi prototype.
4. Deliver
Final prototype Hi-fi.
Market Analysis
I first compared the different music streaming apps on the market.
Spotify is one of the most downloaded for its ease to use thanks to a clear design interface, its large choice of playlists, and the relevant personalization to users' preferences, with a powerful algorithm.
In addition to this, I looked for mobile applications giving hearing-impaired a better music experience, and I found only a few. Based on the vibrations, users can "feel" the music, and see the frequencies via their smartphone screen.
Music streaming market analysis
Discovery
I then focused my research on how do deaf people listen to music.
There are 466.000.000 of deaf and impaired hearing people worldwide.
But what is the music for them?
There are 466.000.000 of deaf and impaired hearing people worldwide.
But what is the music for them?
Music for deaf people is...
Music is Visual
Artists are innovating deaf music experience with installations mixing art & technology. For example, Myles de Bastion creates installations that enable sound to be visual and interactive.
Artists are innovating deaf music experience with installations mixing art & technology. For example, Myles de Bastion creates installations that enable sound to be visual and interactive.
Music is Vibration
Deaf people can’t hear, but they can feel the vibrations of the frequencies. The lower tones are the most felt, that's why big basses are the most appreciated.
Deaf people can’t hear, but they can feel the vibrations of the frequencies. The lower tones are the most felt, that's why big basses are the most appreciated.
Music is Sign Language
Expressed through manual articulations in combination with non-manual elements.
Expressed through manual articulations in combination with non-manual elements.
Myles de Bastion
Sound frequencies
American Sign Language for "I love you"
Music for hearing-impaired is...
Usually, the hearing impaired can hear the sounds, but they have trouble listening to singer’s voices and lyrics. To help them, there is:
Lyrics
Spotify recently partnered with Genius to offer lyric display functionality.
Spotify recently partnered with Genius to offer lyric display functionality.
T Position
A device that allows filtering and clarify the sound, thanks to electromagnetic loops.
Sign language interpreter
Like the Swedish interpreter Tommy Krångh, who did impressive performance of traducing and acting songs during Eurovision.
Song Lyrics
T Position pictogramme
Tommy Krångh performance
Interviews
To have a better understanding of the issue, I find 3 user types: one perfect hearing, one hearing-impaired, and one deep deaf.
The interview session was conducted by written messages, and it was interesting to discover that all of my users loved music, but they still have troubles with their music experience despite hearing aids.
Quotes
Main pain points I notified are:
• Deaf user profile:
The user prefers low-frequency music to feel the vibrations. He has hearing-aids that don't work very well so he put music very loud when neighborhoods are left. He finds that society is not inclusive at all with the deaf, and is interested in the idea of creating a new community and educating people with music playlists dedicated to them.
• Deaf user profile:
The user prefers low-frequency music to feel the vibrations. He has hearing-aids that don't work very well so he put music very loud when neighborhoods are left. He finds that society is not inclusive at all with the deaf, and is interested in the idea of creating a new community and educating people with music playlists dedicated to them.
• Hearing-impaired user profile:
The user can listen to the music but cannot hear the words well, so he sometimes feels very frustrated not to understand the lyrics of the songs. When he reads the lyrics to follow the thread, he discovers new emotions in music he has always listened to.
Quotes from my 3 users
Ideation
Based on these findings, I decided to focus on an MVP for hearing-impaired and to add 3 features to Spotify:
• A LSF feature with a video of a person translating lyrics into sign language.
• A Lyrics mode with texts of the songs.
• The T Position for clarifying the sound.
Ideation: the 3 features
Midfi prototype
Then I created my Mid-fi prototypes on Figma based on the existing version of Spotify. I designed a new page specially dedicated to hearing settings and I also added 3 new icons for these settings in the playlist screens.
View of Mid-fi prototype made on Figma
Usability testing
After that, I was able to conduct my Usability testing and I asked 5 different users to do a role play. They had to imagine that they were hearing-impaired and they had 3 tasks to do on my Spotify prototype:
• To set preferences in hearing-impaired mode.
• To navigate on the app, choose a playlist and listen to a song.
• To remove the hearing-impaired mode from the playlist.
3 Iterations
Iteration
From this usability testing, I noticed few elements I needed to iterate:
• All of my users were frustrated to go back on the playlist page to find the hearing setting button. They were missing this button on the played music page.
• They also wanted to be able to choose between one of the 3 hearing modes independently.
• Finally, the icon with the ear wasn't very clear.
Hifi prototype
After I fixed that, I created Hi-Fi prototype using the Atomic Design to build my small design system.
Atomic Design
Here is the result!
Learnings
Spotify for hearing-impaired people was an exciting subject to explore sensorial experience in digital. I also discovered a new community of impaired people, who were very kind and caregivers during my interviews and it was very engaging to work around their disabilities.
What next?
If I have the opportunity to continue working on this project, I would love to design the part dedicated to the deaf and imagine features that play with vibrations for example.
