Background
After receiving the designathon prompt [Expressive Dialogue], we started with background research. The key takeaway: people's expression needs could be complex — which pointed us toward communication disorders and a set of follow-up questions.
Prompt
"Expressive dialogue is use non-language to express one's self. It is often complex."
Challenge
"Design a mobile app for people with communication disorders to express themselves and build their sense of community and belonging."
Takeaway
People's expression needs could be complex.
Fact
People with communication (speak/listen/read/write) disorders experience difficulties delivering their deep, complex feelings, emotions, ideas, and arguments to an audience.
Follow-Up Questions
How do people with communication disorders express themselves? How do people usually express complex thoughts?
User Research
Understanding Users Through Interview
During the user interview, we tried to bring out participants' intuitive thoughts about the problem. After analyzing the data, we surfaced two key insights that shaped our design guidelines.
Q: How do you want to express your complex emotions / thoughts when you couldn't talk?
If hard to imagine — for example when you're at a quiet library, just got your wisdom teeth out, or lost your voice to COVID.
"Use abstract painting or music to express my emotions."
"I would play music instruments — sometimes I felt like talking is not the best way to express what I want to say."
"I would join the choir — sung poetry is repeated following each verse and can deliver my inner thoughts through condensed language."
Insight 1
Listening and sharing music is an easy daily activity to communicate abstract thoughts with others.
Q: Who do you want to share your complex emotions / thoughts with when you have difficulty expressing yourself?
If hard to imagine — for example when you're new to a city or at a party knowing you can hardly fit in.
"I would talk to my family and trusted friends, even though they're busy with their own stuff and sometimes I feel I put too much stress on them."
Insight 2
People with communication difficulties still hope to connect with more people that they don't know.
Synthesize research findings through persona
To align the team around who we were designing for, we built a persona that captured their pain points and needs — grounding every later design decision in a real point of view.
Alex Ellio
"Songwriter can always express their emotions no matter how complicated, through the lyrics and melody."
User Story
Alex has limited verbal skills and often relies on non-verbal communication to express himself. He enjoys music and finds it comforting, listening every day and night when he's off work — and wishes he could share his feelings with others.
I Hate It When
Singular Expression
Superficial Emotion
Generic Visual Delivery
Isolated Interaction
I Like It When
Emotion Sophistication
Abstract Emotions
Exclusive & Artistic Articulation
Community Construction
Brainstorming
Build A Personal Lyric Vocabulary
Label lyrics with emotions through a gaming experience, growing an exclusive expression database over time.
Create Multi-Sensory Collages
Turn lyrics, stickers, sound, and imagery into a post that captures a feeling words alone can't.
Connect Through Community
Share posts and react with doodles — finding others who express themselves the same way.
Information Architecture
Click To View Full Size ↗
Make UI enhancement by enlarging text and making visual elements more prominent, making it easier to use for people with communication disorders affected by information-capturing deficiencies.
Solution
01 Daily Mood Music Assigning
Good mood, bad mood, or a complicated mind — a mood-music filter always finds the best-matched song of the day.
02 Label Lyrics With Emotions
A lyrics-labeling mini-game builds an exclusive personal lyric database, one song at a time.
03 Generate Emotional Expression Posts
Create posts that best express thoughts and emotions using a personalized lyric database and stickers.
04 Share & React With Community
Connect with a broader community of people who found their own way to express themselves — and react with doodles.
