Wave: Bridging communication, one sign at a time
At-A-Glance
The Wave app aims to bridge hearing and non-hearing individuals together by providing a user-friendly program for learning, practicing, and exercising sign language. Wave focuses on accessibility, inclusivity, and face-to-face communication, allowing sign language education to be available to users of all kinds.
Wave tailors to each user's sign language journey, tracking progress, monitoring answers, and achieving the users' goals.
TIMELINE
June-August 2023
TOOLS
Figma, Adobe Illustrator & XD
MY ROLE
Product Designer, Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Flows, Prototyping
Personalized Learning
WAVE helps users by measuring their current level and goal practice time, identifying estimated fluency time, and guiding users through each lesson.
Face to face lessons
WAVE provides users with a face-to-face experience to visualize how it’s done;
Structured lessons with beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Goal tracking
Users can view their progress through the metrics provided by WAVE, accounting for hours spent and total signs learned.
WAVE incorporates an AI assistant to answer any questions the user may have. It also provides a searchable, interactive library of sign language gestures.
AI Helper
Research and Discovery
Linguistic Neglect of the Deaf
Having studied American Sign Language for three years and spending time with the Deaf community, I became aware of the struggles they face on a day-to-day basis.
.92%
Deaf children have hearing parents
98%
Deaf children have no access to education in Sign Language
3 out of 4
Parents do not sign with their Deaf child
That’s just the start; later into adulthood, the Deaf experience a world created for the hearing. Communication, social interactions, movies, and even a fast-food drive-through can be inaccessible to the Deaf Community.
This leads to the question, “What can we do to provide a more inclusive experience for the Deaf?”
Research and Discovery
Hypothesis
Creating a free and accessible American Sign Language app will reduce the lack of communication between the Deaf and Hearing Communities. Setting reminders, having a live ASL dictionary, and having face-to-face lessons will encourage the hearing community to learn Signs.
Core Principle
Bridging the communication gap between Deaf and Hearing individuals.
Target Audience:
Primary: Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals seeking to communicate with others.
Secondary: Family members, friends, and professionals who want to learn sign language.
Tertiary: Organizations, schools, and businesses aiming to improve accessibility.
Design Goals: Simplicity, Visual Engagement, Accessibility.
Competitive analysis
I analyzed existing language learning apps and platforms to identify gaps in features, usability, and content.
Design Approach
User-Centered Design: Focus on making the app intuitive and easy to navigate for both deaf and hearing users.
Responsive Design: The app will be optimized for various screen sizes and devices (IOS and Android).
Minimalistic & Clear Visuals: High contrast, large icons, and clear visual feedback to cater to users with different levels of ability.
Interactive Elements: Use interactive videos, animations, and tutorials to enhance the learning experience.
Solution and Features
Interactive Dictionary:
A searchable, visually-rich dictionary with video demonstrations of signs performed by real people (native signers).
Includes both individual signs and common phrases.
Accessibility:
High contrast UI with adjustable font sizes and colors to cater to all users, including those with low vision.
Voice-over support for visually impaired users.
Options for subtitles in different languages, making it inclusive for international
Learning Paths:
Structured lessons with progressive difficulty levels—ideal for beginners to advanced learners.
Each lesson includes short video tutorials, interactive quizzes, and practice exercises with real-time feedback.
Focus areas like numbers, greetings, everyday phrases, and fingerspelling.
App structure
Wireframing
Wireframe Highlights
Home Screen:
A dashboard that includes quick access to the dictionary, current lessons, and social/community features.
Lesson Screen:
Interactive lessons with video content, quizzes, and progress , tracking.
Profile Screen:
Displays achievements, badges, and learning progress.
Design system
Prototype and Testing
Prototype: I created a high-fidelity prototype using Figma to simulate user interactions and gather feedback on UI and features.
Usability Testing: 10 users ranging from beginners to intermediate learners.
Methods: Conducted usability tests, including task completion, navigation flow testing, and interviews to evaluate the interface.
Findings: Users loved the video-based feedback but suggested making it more detailed. The “sign of the day” feature was popular but could be improved with notifications. A few users struggled with the font size adjustment, which led to a design tweak for easier readability.
Iteration and Final Design
After incorporating feedback, the app was refined to include: More prominent video feedback on practice sessions.
A tutorial for new users explaining the core features of the app.
Simplified navigation between lessons and practice sections.
Clearer CTA (Call to Action) buttons, especially for new users to get started quickly
Future Direction
AR Integration: Enhance the app by allowing users to visualize signs in real-world contexts using their phone cameras.
Gamification: Add challenges, badges, and leaderboards to keep users engaged and motivated.
Multilingual Support: Expand the app to support other sign languages (e.g., British Sign Language, International Sign Language) for a global audience.
Wave aims to make sign language more accessible to the public. Through an interactive mobile app, it provides a platform for learning and personalized progress tracking and promotes inclusivity and a connection between the hearing and Deaf communities.
Projected outcomes:
Increased Sign Language Fluency and Usage: Users can engage in sign language within their daily lives, and make its usage normalized.
Inclusivity: Even with just the basics of sign language learned from Wave, organizations adopting the app will improve accessibility and enable enhanced communication with Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
An Understanding of Deaf Culture: The Deaf are often overlooked and misunderstood, and with this app, a greater respect for Deaf-Culture and prioritized communication will be evident.
This case study outlines the journey of designing an inclusive and user-centric sign language learning app to create positive social change. By addressing real user pain points and incorporating accessibility, interactivity, and a community-driven approach, WAVE aims to help bridge communication gaps and make learning sign language more accessible to everyone, regardless of their experience level.
