Otti
Transforming Hearing Care Perceptions with CX
Duration
Sep. 2021 - May. 2022
Role
Lead Designer
Team
Nick Collins: Cell Biologist, Engineer, a Certified Aging in Place Specialist
Brief
Otti is a service designed to enhance hearing care by improving the customer experience and reducing adoption barriers.
This project was developed as a graduate thesis.
Problem
There are 38.2 Million people with hearing loss in the US. Age-related hearing loss can begin as early as age 40 and rapidly increases into advanced years of age.
Roughly 30 million with mild to moderate hearing loss are not using an intervention, such as a hearing aid. The impact of hearing loss can be profound, leading to isolation, depression, and low perceived self-efficacy. Left untreated, hearing loss can even contribute to dementia, mobility issues, and an increased risk of falling.
First, we began to investigate current solutions available today and why there is such low adoption. Those are mostly in the form of hearing aids and Implantable devices, more targeted towards severe cases.
Barriers to Assistive Tech
1. Lack of Service Design: Hearing aids are currently only available through audiologists, and there are no options for trying them on beforehand.
2. High Cost: Hearing aids are very expensive, ranging from $1,600 to $8,000 per pair, and are not covered by insurance.
3. Accessibility and Availability: There are 38 million people with hearing problems, but only 6 million audiologists available to assist them.
4. Awareness and Acceptance Issues: A strong stigma associated with aging makes it difficult for people to acknowledge and accept their hearing changes.
Problem Statement
We need to rethink the approach to hearing care in order to accommodate individuals with mild-moderate hearing loss and reduce barriers to adoption.
Opportunity Space
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act is waiting for authorization with new labeling for hearing aids. Over-the-Counter(OTC) medical devices are that offered for direct consumer sale and OTC hearing aids will resemble more modern earbud headphones.
This will benefit the majority of the population with mild-moderate hearing loss since it does require no audiologist visits and the anticipated price range for OTC hearing aids will be significantly lower, $400-$800.
Solution
A service that leverages customer experience for hearing care by reducing barriers to adoption.
Service Overview
Otti has two phases.
Phase 1 raises awareness and attracts customers with hearing tests, printed results, and audio simulations.
Phase 2, post-OTC regulation, offers full hearing care services in retail spaces, including device testing in real-life environments and detailed product information.
Design Principle
Target Users
We set our design principles to carry on throughout the entire design process. Our main focus for service design is to be universal and agnostic by not segregating different age groups or different types of users which can contribute to stigma around aging and lower the impact of promoting awareness.
Digital Tool: Discovery, Empathy, Experience
We aimed to develop a tool that doesn't create stigma around its use. We designed the digital tool with three main functionalities, each offering different value based on user needs.
Discovery Tool:
The simple hearing test takes less than 5 minutes and guides our user to discover her hearing level, working as a discovery tool.
Empathy Tool:
User with no hearing loss will explore our simulation booth to test ANC headsets. While he is using our agnostic service, he can experience how people with different levels of hearing loss would hear; this will work as an empathy tool.
Experience Tool:
This functionality will be available in-store inside a simulation pod, allowing users with hearing loss to try on multiple devices to find the best fit.
We chose simulation environments to accommodate everyday lifestyles and goals for testing. Also, users will be able to call their loved ones to see what they will sound like in real-life.
Park - Pleasant nature sound
Car - Safety
Office - Work environment with white noises
Restaurant - Conversation with white noises
Space Design
We designed the space to be calm and inviting. The form of the pod promotes immersive audio experience. The pod was designed to be private and sound dampening yet with an inviting atmosphere.
Design Process
1. Before we found the opportunity space with the FDA regulation changing, our first direction was to find a solution besides hearing aids, a stigmatized product. We took a major shift considering the impact and feasibility.
2. We began to track back the current journey for hearing care and identified pain points that needed to be addressed. - Space atmosphere - Tedious and confusing process - Lack of variety of devices - Do not get a real sense
3. Before building a complete prototype, there were several validations we needed to make to prove the efficacy of the intervention. We created a landing page and gained user attraction through a google ad.
4. To create and see a holistic view of how our service will be, we developed the service blueprint. It illustrates how our space, visuals, and technology will accommodate users' needs across the journey. We made sure to incorporate our design principles and address pain points that were shown in the existing hearing care journey.
5. From ideation, sketches, prototype iterations
6. Build & Test!
Impact Assessment
We conducted user testing to validate our products’ efficacy.
Discovery tool: Accuracy of the hearing test
Empathy tool: Rate changes for seeking interventions before and after the simulated hearing loss.
Before testing the tool, 35% of non-hearing loss participants said they would seek intervention for mild hearing loss, and 78.2% for moderate hearing loss. After simulating hearing loss, 94.7% indicated they would seek intervention for both mild and moderate hearing loss.
