Since deafness is a complex handicap, our first research focused on the different types of hearing-impairment and how people affected by these communicate together.

We proceeded with a user research with hearing-impaired people to better understand their needs and feelings during their visit to the museum: we first did an online survey and then written interviews to improve the quality of the data.

The survey allowed us to understand that hearing-impaired people feel that they don’t have the same access to information as hearing people, and that they need more signage to show them the way. The survey also showed that they feel abandoned when they’re visiting with hearing friends, it makes the visit less fun and they get bored and frustrated.

A gamified application that guides the users through different courses according to their desire, and makes the visit more fun to them. They’ll have to look for hidden mosaic pieces in the museum, to play mini-games and learn while playing: the goal is to get all the pieces and complete the mosaic.

Prototype

The user flow I created is divided into two parts: one during which the user follows the course chosen in the course list, and another one during which they can stroll freely and scan the museum exhibitions to get more information about what interests them.

In our application, we want to guide the visitor at best and accompany him through storytellings, practical information and orientations that punctuate the visit.

The users can choose between audio, subtitles and/or french sign language depending on their needs or desires.

The application has access to the camera and works with image recognition (it can be used to scan the exhibitions and have more information about them) and 3D visualization (to display the original representation).

We gamified the app so that people who want to learn by playing can have a more fun visit than usual. The video below shows a visitor playing a game found on an exhibition, in which he has to complete a puzzle. Every time he completes a part, an explanation pops up to explain it

To promote this new app, there will be posters in several places of the museum so that people can see them while visiting and get the app immediately.

This project helped me to understand better the hearing-impaired community and how to make an app accessible to them, in addition to trying to meet their needs while visiting the museum.