The Hearing Loss Game
“What?” is a collaborative party card game that simulates mild to severe hearing loss through noise reduction means and requires players to complete group tasks. “What?” fosters empathy for the hearing loss experience within social circles and alleviates the stigma and emotional barriers older adults with presbycusis face in their social lives.
Context
UX Studio 1
UXDG 330 Fall 2020
timeline
10 Weeks
SEP 2020 - NOV 2020
team
Nandika Gupta
Eduardo Alfonso
Andrea Castro-Yanes
Leo Caballero
Danlei Xiang
contribution
Research Lead
Copywriting
Product Visuals
The Problem
One in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 have hearing loss and nearly half of those older than 75 have difficulty hearing.
Older adults with presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, experience poor communication which leads to anger, frustration & depression, and as a consequence, strained relationships and social isolation. We focused on alleviating the barriers of communication and helping with the emotional side effects faced by older adults with presbycusis.
The Solution
“What?” is a collaborative card game that fosters empathy for the hearing loss experience within social circles and alleviates the stigma and emotional barriers older adults with presbycusis face in their social lives.
How it works
The Cards
The game presents 10 types of fun & engaging activities such as Say it Loud, Broken Telephone, Clap that Number & many more!
The card includes a visual representation of the activity, instructions & the level of difficulty.
The Levels
Each type of activity has a different level of difficulty indicated by the ear icon at the bottom of the card.
The distance indicates how far apart each player stands at to increase difficulty & encourage movement.
The Headphones
The game comes with earplugs & earmuffs to provide noise reduction means that simulate varying levels of hearing loss. The earmuffs come with 4 foams pads that increase the level of hearing loss from mild hearing loss (32 dB) to moderately severe hearing loss (57 dB)
Hearing Loss Leads to Social Isolation
Hearing loss in older adults creates miscommunication and strain in social relationships which eventually leads to the older adult isolating themselves to stay away from negative interactions. This social isolation can lead to...
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Social Health
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Negatively impacts personal and work relations
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Increased social isolation
Mental Health
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Decrease in cognitive ability
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Higher risk of dementia
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Physical Health
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Higher mortality rate
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Independent living is jeopardized
How did we get here?
Process
14
Interviews
6
Contextual Inquiries
8
Cultural Probes
11
User Tests
Top User Insights
We interviewed 14 older adults, all of which had been screened to determine if they reached our hearing loss criteria. Through these interviews and contextual research we gained the following insights...
300+ Data Points
70 Clusters
10 Key Insights
Our Insights
Older adults feel guilty, frustrated, and embarrassed when they cannot hear others.
Older adults prefer loud conversations whether through speaker phone, high volume, or in person.
Older adults rely on non-verbal cues to understand others.
Older adults avoid scenarios with a lot of noise & disturbances because they feel lost.
Many older adults feel embarrassed when using hearing aids and actively avoid it.
From these insights and their frequency we developed the following how might we's to define our design direction.
How Might we help older adults with hearing loss...
return to their normal flow of conversation?
improve their situational awareness?
not feel guilty or embarressed during social interactions?
release their stigma of hearing aids?
User Testing
Once our direction was formed we user tested two versions of "What?". The first consisted of large tangible cards while the second contained a more technologically advanced component which displayed the tasks on a central screen.
Version A
Cards; tangible & movable
Version B
Physical hub; fixed position, visual representation
total user testing subjects
11
Domain Experts
6
Hearing Participants
5
Methods
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Wizard of Oz
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Concierge
Insights
Deciding between products
What I Learned
1/
Accessibly Design
Designing for accessibility is incredibly important to keep in mind while working with products that are intended to target a large range of users. While working with Older Adults who have hearing loss, I learned a lot about minute details that might not matter to the young and able bodied but create a world of difference for those who are aging and have imparements.
02/
Designing for Older Adults
Older adults are a demographic I have not worked with before, however, with older adults consisting of nearly 25% of the US population by 2050, I deemed it important to begin my journey with them now. This product has shown me that older adults tend to get overlooked in designs and they really appreciate when we ask for their insights. I genuinely enjoyed my experience working with this demographic.
