Alexandria
Emergency Response Communication for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Guest
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PROJECT OVERVIEW
PROBLEM STATEMENT
"Develop a solution that vacation providers can distribute to hearing-impaired guests for the duration of a stay to enhance communication of emergency alerts."
INTRODUCTION
Alexandria is an emergency broadcast system for deaf vacationers. It can detect the emergency alerts and automatically turn on the TV and related lighting systems to notify hearing-impaired guests when emergencies happen. The product was developed with Disney Research & Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Project Details
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Client: Disney Research
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Time: Feb 2016 - May 2016
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Team Size: Six people
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Type:
MITidm Design Project
My Role
Product head
UX designer
Industrial designer
Prototyper
Skills
User Interview
Brainstorming
Competitive analysis
Prototyping
Solidworks / Illustrator
DESIGN PROCESS
1
RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITY LANDSCAPE
This project aimed to develop a solution that can help deaf and hard of hearing people share the same vacation experiences, even when emergencies happen. Our first step is to figure out our opportunity landscapes.
INTERVIEW
19
Hearing-Impaired Cruise Guests
12
Hearing Cruise Guests
11
Emergency Response Crew
SELECT INSIGHTS
Hearing-Impaired Cruise Guests
Interviewees affiliated with:
Hearing Cruise Guests
Interviewees were guests of:
Emergency Response Crew
Interviewees were affiliated with:
NEEDS LIST
From the user interviews and user statements, a Preliminary Needs List is created.
PERSONA
The followings are two real stories we got through our interviews that could represent our primary users.
Barbara's Journey...
Alice's Journey...
PRIMARY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
There are some existing technologies and supporting stakeholders already used for hearing impaired guests. During the research phase, we collected the information as reference for our design.
SUPPORTING STAKEHOLDERS
EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES
2
IDEATION
CONCEPT GENERATION
USER DISCUSSION
To get a better concepts and understanding of the needs, we held an initial user testing based on identified needs and facilitated ideation sessions with Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to prioritize the concepts.
PRIORITIZED NEEDS LIST
After the discussions with Horace Mann, we refined and re-prioritized the needs list.
IDEATION
SKETCH MODELS & DFV EVALUATION
We made quick and dirty prototypes for six selected ideas and applied DFV (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) method to evaluate the ideas. The wearable idea was chosen at the end.
DESIGN DECISION
Through discussions with staffs of Horace Mann Deaf and Hard of Hearing School and peer review, we decided to create a wearable that can notify hearing-impaired vacationers when emergencies happen.
3
PROTOTYPE
WORKS-LIKE PROTOTYPE
Different iterations of works-like prototypes were developed to test the concepts.
LOOKS-LIKE PROTOTYPE
EXISTING WEARABLE & PROTOTYPES
SKETCHES
4
USER TESTING
USER TESTING
2
Feedback Sessions with Horace Mann
3+
Hours of American Sign Language (ASL) classes
5
Hearing-Impaired Students
During the user testings, we noticed an important element that had been ignored during the user research ---
"Some hearing-impaired people don't want to be identified."
Also, some issues were identified...
PIVOT
Base on the testing results, even though our client loved the wearable solution, we decided to pivot our design. We rechecked the needs and opportunity landscapes and found that the most vulnerable circumstances for deaf and hard of hearing people in emergencies is when they are:
ALONE + INSIDE STATEROOM + ASLEEP
5
FINAL DESIGN
DESIGN FEATURES
Alexandria was the final product that we developed. We provided a rich communication broadcast layer on top of existing safety infrastructure. It's a black box that can be installed on the TV. Alexandria can detect the emergency alarms and automatically turn on the TV to show the messages.
Tamper-proof
Simple
Easy to use & conceal
HOW IT WORKS
When emergency alarm sounds, the sensor inside Alexandria will detect it and switch the on/off button to turn on the TV and shows the information that we pre-stored in the device.
Technology Map: Selected Opportunities
Software Pathways
FORM FACTOR
CAD MODEL & ASSEMBLY DRAWING
USER INTERFACE
EMERGENCY SIGNAL
The video will be played when Alexandria detects the emergency alarms. It can be customized based on the users.
Icons
Multi-Languages
Custimizable
WEBSITE & PACKAGE DESIGN
