Improving Sony's Hearing Control App
Streamlining the setup experience.
Role
UI/UX Intern
Timeline
Oct 2023 - Jan 2024 (4 months)
Team
Sony HESA UX
Tools Used
Figma, Microsoft Office
Project Overview
My team at Sony improves the UX of the company's suite of entertainment products from TVs, audio devices (headphones, speakers, etc.) to the mobile, web, and on-screen interfaces.
During my internship, I focused on a significant project: refining and resolving setup issues in Sony's Hearing Control app for their Over the Counter Hearing Aids (OTCHA). This involved working closely with UX Researchers, design mentors, and stakeholders from Japan, contributing to research sessions and design improvements.
Sony CRE-C10 OTCHA Photo by Sony Electronics
Context + Problem
Sony's Hearing Control app provides a mobile setup and control experience for their Over the Counter Hearing Aids (OTCHA) Devices CRE-C10 and CRE-E10. This project focused solely on the CRE-C10 model. As this app was in its early iterations, previous usability testing of the setup process revealed that most elderly users were not able to complete the setup process.
In this subsequent round of testing, while setup completion improved, challenges and confusion persisted. For the this iteration, my focus was to streamline and refine the setup process based on valuable user feedback.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders for this project were product managers and engineers from Sony Electronics in Tokyo, Japan, who would often participate in research sessions and design meetings in San Diego. Working closely with stakeholders throughout the design process especially from a foreign country taught me to set expectations early, ensuring everyone was on the same page.
How might we streamline the Sony's Hearing Control app setup experience to provide more feedback and reduce user confusion?
Usability Research
Usability research was the first step of this project with 8 participants who were all interested in using hearing aids because they had mild to moderate hearing loss. The goals were to understand whether the 2nd version of the Hearing Control App setup was achievable and identify areas of improvement. Participants were asked to complete 9 tasks that encompassed various setup processes on the app and usage of the OTCHA as if they were setting them up at home.
User Demographic
Elderly users with mild to moderate hearing loss, based in San Diego who are interested in using OTCHA. This demographic was designated by the stakeholders based on the most common customer of OTCHA.
8 participants
9 tasks
“I still have not figured out the way to set my volume to 75% and for me at this point it's a problem.” – P4
“I don't understand what 'disconnect any external devices' are either. I wasn't quite sure about that.” – P6
"I feel like this is taking a while. How much do I have left?" -P1
Key Insights
A few standout insights were identified from synthesis. While everyone was able to complete setup this time, there were still issues that prevented users from completing setup seamlessly. These issues were big interruptions in the experience which caused users to spend most of their time troubleshooting.
Synthesizing was my favorite part during this process because I was able to dump my observations along with researchers and stakeholders. We celebrated successes and discussed issues with the app, which helped me focus on key design opportunities.
Design
Based on the insights, I generated a list of requirements the new iteration should have.
1. Clarify confusing or vague instructions
2. Improve the user flow and consolidate unnecessary repetitive actions
3. Provide more feedback to the user by showing progress
4. Make the instructions easier to read, visually
Wireframes
Over a few weeks, I created multiple iterations on designs with various design choices to discuss with stakeholders. My updated designs included progress bar functionality and text changes.
Although I wasn't creating new designs from scratch, these revisions took much time and detail to ensure users needs were being addressed and met stakeholder expectations.
Low Fidelity
High Fidelity
User Flows
Coupled with the wireframes, I mapped out the user flow for the entire setup process, which helped me understand each step. There were an astonishing 54 steps, with a promise of taking 10 minutes. Thus, I removed redundant sections, consolidated and reordered screens and added progress feedback to ensure a more streamlined setup.
I spent the most time developing user flows during my design process because I had to revise and correspond with stakeholders to ensure all hearing checks were still achieved.
My final flow consisted of 43 steps, which still included the necessary comprehensive instructions to set up OTCHA but with a more streamlined experience.
Final Design
Progress Functionality
I added a progress bar on each of the screens to provide insight to the user. I also displayed a completion of each section to show another layer of progress.
My goals were to both communicate progress, show status, and not overwhelm the user. At first, I considered one simple progress bar for the whole setup process, but I realized that could be daunting for the user because it would progress slowly.
Thus, I decided to break up the progress based on each section. Since there were 4 areas of completion, I designed a new progress bar for each section, and show completion status after each section was completed.
Optimized user flow
I removed unnecessary steps and consolidated screens. For example, confirming with a beep sound occurred 3 times. I removed one occurrence because they happened in succession, which felt like a redundant step to the participants. The final flow only had 2, still ensuring the basic functionality was met.
This user flow redesign required much collaboration with the Japanese stakeholders to ensure the setup process was thorough.
Intuitive Language
Many of the users had issues with the set up because they were confused about the steps or the wording of the instructions. I reworded any confusing instructions that were called out by participants. Some of these were suggested by them
Next, I emphasized important calls-to-action by bolding and capitalizing the text to simplify required actions. I also added short tip blurbs for vague instructions to further reduce confusion.
Takeaways
UX is a toolkit 🧰
Design at Sony was an immense learning experience for me in terms of expanding my design breadth. Sony’s products consist of an interplay of software and hardware so it was new for me to research and design for mixed experiences. My UX knowledge served as a toolkit which I easily applied to various Sony products.
Accessibility exposure ♿
Our team has recently begun to focus more on creating more accessible designs, so I was exposed to accessibility guidelines within the entertainment space. I worked with an accessibility expert on our team in creating storyboards and observed research with users who have various disabilities. These exercises provided me with a new lens for me to evaluate and design products.