Design a phone for deaf people.

Question

Design a phone for deaf people.

Asked at Google over a year ago

1.6k views

Product Design category

Asked at

1.6k views

How to answer Product Design questions

Interview Guide

Top Product Design interview questions

How would you design a web search engine for children below 14 years old?36 answers | 42.9k views
Design a library for the future.25 answers | 23.5k views
How would you design a consumer application for a scooter sharing business?21 answers | 18.6k views
See Product Design PM Interview Questions

Invite members
Invite by email

Add another

SPD_2017 · Answer 1 · 2022-06-21T14:09:17+0000

Approach-

Clarifying questions, propose a structure(define user needs, compare existing product, find gaps and propose how to fill the gaps), identify end user, define core features and secondary features, summarize.

1.Clarifying question:

Are we designing this phone for a completely deaf user or partially deaf, users with hearing aid etc?

Do they user have any other co-morbidities?

Is it ok to assume that the user wants call /text functions in the product?

For this post, Let's assume this is for a 100% deaf users that cannot use a standard phone. The goal is that user is able to call, answer calls, receive audio/video messages and receive notifications on the phone.

2.Propose a structure:

Now, let' identify user needs, compare those with a regular phone and identify gaps to determine how to build this product-

User needs-

Wants to use phone for audio/video call
wants to receive notfications, alerts and watch media

Comparing with existing product - a regular phone

A regular phone uses sound and vibrations for call and text notification
Users need to talk to the calling party and have a live conversation.
Most of the apps such as Instagram, YouTube require users to set subtitles in the video.

Gaps -

A deaf user cannot hear the calling party, cannot have a live conversation- (impact- HIGH)
A deaf user cannot hear audio or video messages on a regular phone (impact- HIGH)
A deaf user cannot hear notification sounds (impact- LOW)
A deaf user cannot always view subtitles/ transcript for live videos (impact- LOW)

SOLUTIONS:

Core Feature:

A phone that offers real-time speech to text conversion for the party the user is calling so that user can have a live conversation.
A phone provides transcript for the audio and video messages

Secondary Features:

A phone that has elevated vibrations based settings, for call, text and app based notifications
Phone assistant that shows notifications, alerts, messages transcript to read
A phone that provides subtitles, sound to text conversion for the apps where video/audio is being used.

Who else can potentially use this product?

Phone must have audio for each call and message along with speech conversion option in case the primary user is unavailable and their family member wants to attend the call

To summarize-

Core product feature will include-

A phone with real-time speech to text conversion for live audio and video calls, this can be developed as an app that can run on any ecosystem, saves cost.
Speech conversion to a transcript for audio/video messages sent to the user

Secondary features -

subtitles for all video and audio apps on the phone
Elevated vibration based notifications for calls/messages/alerts
Display on screen notifications when phone assistance wants to notify the user
Personal assistance on the phone can playback the transcript of audio and video messages, reminders and text messages with a single click.

Arnav Kohli · Answer 2 · 2022-05-25T20:13:42+0000

Listing down my approach:

1. Clarifications & Assumptions

2. Goals

3. Discussing Pain Points/ Needs for Users

4. Prioritising Pain Points

5. Brainstorming Solutions

6. Recommendation

1. Clarifications & Assumptions

Do we want to build an entirely new product or improvise on the current phone design to cater to our audience?

I'll be looking to improvise the current phone design, only in terms of software (which may/may not give rise to hardware requirements), so that our users are not left out from the current eco-system and don't miss out on experiences becuase of compatibility issues.

2. Goals

The phone experience can be broken down into 3 major functionalities:

- Communication
- Recreation
- Notifications & Alerts

Our goal with this product would be to make the functionalities suit our users better.

3. Discussing Pain Points/ Needs for Users

To make the functionalities of the phone suit our users better, we can eradicate pain points and cater to needs specific to our user.

I'll be discussing pain points, along with their resolution impact, for 3 different scenarios - phone specific pain points, pain points in a public setting, pain points while at home.

Pain Points: Phone Specific

User cannot hear what the caller is saying. Impact: HIGH
User cannot hear auditory cues from applications. Impact: MED
User doesn't know what type of notification have they received. unless they check their phone - text, alert, reminder, etc. Impact: MED

Pain Points: Public Setting

User cannot hear if someone is calling out their name in real life. Impact: MED
User cannot hear what the person is saying. Impact: HIGH
User cannot hear public announcements. Impact: LOW

Pain Points: At Home

User cannot hear if someone rings the bell. Impact: HIGH
User cannot hear if someone breaks into their house. Impact: LOW
User cannot hear if there was a calamity at their place - gas leak, fire, etc. Impact: HIGH

4. Prioritising Pain Points

I'll be focussing on the HIGH impact pain points:

User cannot hear what the person on the phone is saying.
User cannot hear what the person is saying.
User cannot hear if someone rings the bell.
User cannot hear if there was a calamity at their place - gas leak, fire, etc.

5. Brainstorming Solutions

User cannot hear what the caller is saying.
- Use visual cues, like real time transcripts, to assist the user in understanding what the person on the phonecall is saying.
User cannot hear what the person is saying.
- Listen to the conversation (given the user's voluntary access), and provide real time transcripts.
User cannot hear if someone rings the bell.
- Monitor for ringing bells (given the user's voluntary access) and alert the user if someone rigns a bell.
User cannot hear if there was a calamity at their place - gas leak, fire, etc.
- Allow IoT integrations with smart applicances to alert the user when there is an abnormality detected in the household.
- Monitor for abnormal sound cues and alert the user whenever necessary.

6. Recommendation

We should redesign the current phone to cater to our specific audience by retrofitting an audio transcription software to transcript call/ conversations in real time. Furthermore, the phone should be able to monitor for environmental actions like ringing bells, ability to connect to smart appliances and notify/ alert whenever necessary.