PERSONAL NOISE MONITORING SOLUTION
Even though there are many types of ear protectors and noise canceling headphones in use throughout industry, excessive noise exposure and the psychological and physical impact that this can have often goes unnoticed by workers. safety managers, and companies. This is due in part to the nature of noise exposure being cumulative and without sufficient awareness and management can build up over time contributing to fatigue, stress, sleep disorders, changes in mood, and noise induced hearing loss. I was lead product designer collaborating with industrial designer on new ear protection equipment that would not only protect workers from noise but also empower workers to be more aware of their noise exposure, the potential harm this could cause, and actions they can take to eliminate any effects.
ROLE: LEAD UX/IX DESIGNER
DESIGN PHASES: DISCOVERY + DEFINE
RELEASED: NOV 2018
CLIENT: HONEYWELL
PLATFORM: WEB, MOBILE & TABLET
DESIGN TOOLS: AXURE + SKETCH + ZEPELIN
PROTOTYPING: AXURE + INVISION
VISUAL DESIGN: ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
DISCOVERY
To understand the problem in more depth we ran a series of design sprint type workshops to include subject experts, sales, product and marketing teams, and design team to explore not only the industrial design needs for a new improved range of ear defenders and headphones, but the wider context of noise exposure, the behaviour change needs, and possible ways to address the problem. This resulted in the creation of 3 themes (each with a defined problem statement and desired outcome) which coalesced the ideas and thinking.
The theme problem statement and outcome:
Visualise the hidden; Currently a large proportion of people are unaware of the impact of noise levels, what is a safe level, and long term effects.
We want to raise the awareness of noise levels and the potential harm this can cause to wide
a range of persona types with practical advise and suggestions related to individual circumstances/context and collected data.
Awareness of the consequences; Many users are not aware of the potential long term health risks associated with noise exposure, and the effect of accumulated exposure above normal levels.
We want to allow specific users to measure and track their hearing health, with indication when they are over-exposed and providing predictive hearing health measures based on collected data and personal attributes
Share the benefits; Noise Exposure can contribute to fatigue, stress and hearing loss. Monitoring exposure likelihood of over exposure, the current levels and inform the user to take action.
We want to create a solution and work practice for company workers which enables users to both monitor/ track their individual noise exposure and combine data from all users
to establish a dynamic noise map, with individual alerts for over- exposure, and notifications of noisy environments with the recommended level of protection or permitted exposure time per day.
With these problem statements and outcomes we worked on creating a series of storyboards to reflect how the solution might work, and what the benefit would be for the worker, company, and society.
DEFINE
In addition we identified the key industrial and worker stakeholders and segments that would be most influential in the reduction and/or impacted by noise exposure, and the team conducted a wide range of interviews both in the US and UK with people working in each of the sectors to capture the observational voice of the customer (OVOC) qualitative data around current policies on noise safety, selection criteria used for hearing protection & communication, value of personal noise monitoring, response to the storyboard scenarios.
This helped to validate assumptions and needs with the industrial design requirements, and also gauge the acceptance and potential barriers of introducing personal noise monitoring, and how organizations currently approach noise exposure issues in the different industries. It also provided qualitative data to build a set of 5 user personas that could be used for the project.
With a product vision, validated assumptions, OVOC user research, personas, and customer journeys we could move forward both with the hardware design to accommodate additional components and electronics to measure and transmit via bluetooth the noise level entering the ear, and an easy visual cue on the headset to show level of exposure above normal threshold levels, using the design system LED visual style from the approach taken in the gas detection products.
In addition user flows for key tasks such as setup (adding a device) connecting and reviewing noise data were created along with simple wireframe designs for a companion mobile app to capture and record the noise data, present this back to the user, and track accumulated levels, along with suggested quiet periods to reduce the cumulative impact.
This was followed by series of user testing for both the hardware UI elements in terms of activating the noise measurement, visual and audio cues for exposure times and thresholds, along with a mobile app prototype for setup, connecting a device, viewing the noise level data, the quiet time recommendations, and overall response to the personal noise monitoring solution wrt to intended design outcomes. The testing was able to highlight a number of usability issues with the headset UI design which were address with the next version, and had positive user feedback to the mobile app and the overall concept of personal noise monitoring.
GALLERY
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