I designed a physical prototype for a product to help deaf or hard of hearing individuals identify possible hazards in their environment and to help assist them in their day-to-day life. The product is a strip that can be inserted to helmets, ball caps, and any other hats. This strip has several small sensors connected to it that will detect sounds around the individual and will send out small vibrations to alert the user of the possible hazards around them. This strip would also have snaps so that the user can expand or shorten the length of it depending on the size of their head and hat.
To start this project I created a few personas to plan and make better design decisions, as well as making sure that this product would be helpful to the target audience. From there I created a physical prototype and conducted interviews with my peers.
During the Interview process I presented my prototype by asking the interviewee to put themselves into multiple different scenarios, for example riding your bike in a urban setting while another biker is trying to pass you or riding your bike on a road with no bike lane as an emergency vehicle passes you from behind. After the interviewees thought for a few moments, I asked them to then imagine if they were a deaf individual and asked them the same scenario questions. After they thought about these interactions as a deaf individual I gave them a brief description of my product and how it works, then asked them to try it out.
As I watched them interact with the prototype I took notes on their first reaction, accessibility, and simplicity. After multiple improved prototypes had been tested by my peers, I created the final prototype from the results of the testing.