Ni:Shabd- For the will to connect

Innovative solution for teaching Indian Sign Language to Hearing parents of HI

Introduction

Ni:Shabd, is a project that evokes the hope to connect with thoe those who are Nishabd- Wordless. Yes, I am talking about the hearing and speech impaired (HI). Here is a an attempt not to make them inclusive, but, to include ourselves into their lives. Our solution is for the family of HI so that they can learn and connect for heart to heart conversation. In my 3rdsemester of M.Des. at National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi, I got the opportunity to do a classroom project on Design Innovation in a team of three. Me and my teammates wanted this project to be well researched and practical enough to implement in future.

What is Ni:Shabd?

Ni:Shabd is an innovative sign language learning app, designed using the double diamond design innovation approach. It enables  the family of a Hearing Impaired individual to communicate with their loved ones. Here by family, we mean anyone who wants to communicate and connect emotionally with a Hearing Impaired person because for someone who cannot express his heart’s desires, his deep thoughts and life’s concerns to anyone, people who understand them are their family. By using Ni:Shabd, these family members can learn Indian Sign Language (Which is only in English) both in English and Hindi.

What problem does it solve?

There are many books, schools, institutes, websites, mobile applications etc. available for a Hearing Impaired person to learn and use a sign language. However, learning sign language is not very effective for them because the people they want to connect with, don’t know the language. There are many parents today who cannot even understand their child, connecting emotionally with them comes much later. Hearing Impaired children of these parents often grow up alone and feel depressed and disconnected with their parents. These Hearing Impaired Individuals find comfort only with other Hearing Impaired people because they are the only one who can understand them. This problem exists because these parents don’t know any sign language. If they want to learn the language they face difficulties because of their mental conditioning or because the language is in English, which they do not understand.

How was problem identified and Solution designed?

Problem Statement: How might we bridge the existing communication gap between hearing impaired individuals and their family?

Here are some moments that we could capture

Competitor Study

Analysis

Persona Building

Ni:Shabd’s core UX principles

Ni:Shabd is a learning app whose user base majorly comprises of adults. Adults have a different mental conditioning as compared to that of children. Thus, Ni:Shabd follows a user experience oriented andragogy instead of a pedagogy. Following are the UX principles: • Instructions should be task-oriented instead of memorization • Establish a physically and psychologically conductive learning atmosphere for learners. • Help learners determine the level of competency in the area of interest. • Involve learners in mutual planning. • Involve learners in learning evaluation.

Features

Community of learners and experts • Short duration lessons • Chat based learning • Stories and different scenarios • Flashcard and content creation by community • Contextual Visual content • Word of the day

• Easy games tailored for adults • Dictionary • Subtitles in Hindi and English • Audio in English • Description of every word in a sentence. • Level badges

Some conceptual Lo-fi wire-frames

Ni:Shabd’s Integrated Media Campaign Strategy

Future Scope

In future, with time and efforts I want to refine the concept of this app more by doing more research and spending much more time on its design so that the experience of using and learning from this app becomes seamless. As per the current concept, the app targets the family of a Hearing Impaired Individual to teach them Indian Sign language in English and Hindi. However, this app can be scaled to teach even more sign languages and cater to a global audience.