"Unpublished App Concept"
Duration
4 months
My role
Digital Designer
Completed
N/A
Technology
Native mobile app
Project introduction
This project was done in collaboration with a large manufacturer of hearing aids. The client was experiencing a high amount of returns on their hearing aids, primarily from first-time users, resulting in financial loss for the client.
The project began with the hypothesis that the returns were happening because users had hard time adjusting the settings on their hearing aids to their personal preferences. When getting hearing aids for the first time, it is installed and set up together with an audiologist, but users have the option to change settings as their hearing adjusts.
After an initial round of user research, interviewing both hearing aid users, doctors and audiologists, it became apparent that the returns were happening because of difficulties adjusting to the new and improved hearing.
Going from impaired to near-perfect hearing showed to be an overwhelming experience for users, who were suddenly bombarded with stimuli and impressions they were not used to. Going out in public, having conversations and watching TV was suddenly no longer pleasant experiences, so users resorted to going back to their “old” hearing.
To improve the success rate of new hearing aid users, we embarked on a project of creating an “onboarding app”, that would guide users through navigation life with improved hearing — not just adjusting the settings on the actual hearing aid.
Flows
To target the many different aspects of getting used to new hearing aids, we divided the app into multiple “sessions” or flows. Each flow consisted of a small exercise or a collection of tips and tricks for different everyday scenarios, such as eating in a restaurant, adjusting the volume on the TV, how to clean your hearing aid etc.
Initially, the user was guided through each flow, allowing them to slowly grow comfortable with their hearing aid, but they also had the option to do the sessions at their own pace – and it was important that they could always return to the different sessions, to freshen up on the knowledge.
Look and feel
It was important to the client that the look and feel of the app was vastly different from your “typical” medical app. They wanted a bright and fresh look, with lots of imagery of happy and thriving people, that would give a feeling of hopefulness to the user.
In terms of language, happy and motivational language was specifically used to uplift and encourage the user to keep going. Lots of praise and celebration was included, in hope to somewhat “gamify” the experience.
Launch
Because of financial and business decisions, the project was stopped before the app was launched.
Collaboration
The app was designed in a collaboration between Jayway by Devoteam and Manyone. My role on the project, as Digital Designer, began when Manyone had done the initial design and left the project. My responsibilities included maintaining the site map, designing UX and UI for new features and collaborating with developers during implementation.