Enhancing communication for the deaf and hard of hearing community
GoVoBo is a captioning application made by and for the deaf and hard of hearing community. The application uses AI-enabled speech recognition technology to provide audio captions in a user-friendly way. It makes it easier for users to participate in online group conferences, listen to podcasts, and communicate with loved ones. GoVoBo is developed out of Gallaudet University in partnership with AppTek.
Contributions
As the UX designer I was responsible for developing wireframes, conducting user research, and delivering final design files.
Card sort
UX design
User interviews
Prototyping
Wireframing
Accessibility
Previous design
A powerful new tool
The goals of the project was to update the UI to make the application simple and intuitive. An emphasis was be placed on customization of settings such as audio and text. The main problem areas of the current tool were not having easy access to customizations, finding appropriate places to add new features, and being able to resize the window. At this moment in time, the application was only available for desktop use.
Figuring out which features to prioritize
A competitive analysis was conducted by reviewing competitors as well as analogous transcription and online meeting platforms. I also sat in multiple feedback sessions of users walking through the current application and assessing current pain points.
Based on this research I created simple cards for a card sorting exercise asking users to rate which features they would find most useful. This helped myself and the team prioritize which features to develop.
Main themes
The main themes that came from the research were to prioritize customization and ensure the design doesn’t hinder the user of other windows open in their workspace.
Customization
This is a tool that users will potentially be using daily and needs to be able to adhere to their preferences.
This tool is something that will be used in both personal and professional settings. GoVoBo should be the go-to tool for both a large conference meeting and a conversation with a friend.
For all aspects of your life
Don’t interfere
The application shouldn’t obstruct other windows in the user’s workspace.
The captions themselves should be the main element on display once the app start running. The design should be subtle and not distracting.
Keep it minimal.
Exploring Interactions
Building out a prototype was essential during the design process. The prototype allowed the team to preview how various interactions would work. Since the interface was going to be minimal and simple this better communicated the design rather than still images.
Complete customization
Final design
The final design encompassed multiple settings for the captions themselves. Users could customize the color, font, text size, line spacing, and transparency of the caption window.
Translations and sharing
GoVoBo is a powerful tool that includes features like multi-language captions, sharing the caption window with other users, and a slew of caption customizations. All these featured are housed in the minimal interface.
Core team
Dr. Patrick Boudreault
Director, Product Development
Dr. Christian Vogler
Director, Technology Access Program
Molly Feanny
Head of Product Testing
Mike Veronis
Product Manager
Kyle Maddock
Head of Marketing
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Ney
Director of Science