ScribeTribe Mobile App
A revolutionary app for the Visually Impaired
ScribeTribe is an app that allows scribe volunteers and visually impaired students to get connected to with each other.
A scribe is a qualified individual who writes or types verbatim exactly as a student dictates their responses during exams
Introduction
Problem Statement
Hunting for scribes has always been an added stress factor for visually impaired students during examinations. There are hardly any platforms connecting volunteers to students.
My Goal
My goal was to design an accessible mobile app that lets visually impaired students independently post a request for scribes and connect with them.
My Role
This is a Project that I worked on for the SSIP Gujarat Hackathon.
I worked as a UX Researcher and UI/UX Designer, responsible for research, analysis, wireframing and prototyping.
Project Duration
This app design took us approximately 1 month - from research to high-fidelity prototype.
Tools Used
Figma
My Design Process
Understanding The Users
My goal here was to design an app that is easy for independent usage by disabled people, especially the visually impaired community.
For this, my team and I talked to various people associated with the “Scribe” community. This included visually impaired students, volunteers, employees at Scribe Banks, etc.
We also did 2 rounds of usability testing with our target users and picked the “Dynamic Programming” approach i.e. solving smaller problems in order to reach the bigger solution
Following are some of the pain points we found:
Inability of the visually-Impaired users to use apps independently
Miscommunication of dates, and other exam related information.
Lack of proper organization of data
Target Audience
My target audience for this app includes the following user groups:
Students with permanent disabilities like permanent visual impairment
Students with temporary disabilities like fractures and other injuries
Secondary Research
Personas and Empathy Mapping
Competitive Analysis
Our current competitor in the scribe finder platforms include:
ScribeFinder App: This app is a direct competitor for Scribe Tribe App but has some accessibility constraints that prevent visually-impaired students from using the app independently. These issues include:
Forms fields can only be filled out with the help of someone else
Language used in app maybe offensive at times
Creating the Solution
Keeping in mind, the problems that users felt, I started working on a solution that was both easy-to-use and empowered the visually-impaired community.
Here are the accessibility that I incorporated in our app that may solve the user problems:
High color contrast ratio of 8.7:1 for easier viewing.
Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech which aids in easier app navigation for the visually impaired community.
Uniformity of icon placements with gesture-based navigation (like "Enable Mic with double click on the screen" to solve the problem of finding the microphone icon every time.)
Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototype
Two working modes:
To find a scribe
To volunteer as a scribe
Single question per screen for ease of use for the visually impaired students and text-to-voice assistant.
Accepted Requests show up on the student’s feed and they can connect with the scribe on a call for further discussion.
Lo-fi Prototype
Click here to view the low-fidelity prototype
Usability Testing for Lo-fi Prototype
Findings
It took time for visually impaired users to remember where the mic and speaker button was placed. This caused confusion and frustration amongst them.
Since, the mic icon was placed at a different position on each screen, the visually impaired users struggled to find it each time.
Solutions
Adding gestures like “double tapping”, “holding" anywhere on the screen to access mic and speakers while developing the application.
Uniformizing the placement of icons in all the screens so it could be saved in the muscle memory easily.
Mockups and High-Fidelity Prototype
Click here to view the high-fidelity working prototype
ScribeTribe Responsive Web Design
Information Architecture
Responsive Web Designs
Impact and What I Learned
It is of immense pride for me to share that ScribeTribe App made it to the Grand Finale of SSIP Hackathon.
We believe that such an application, if developed well can be a revolution in the community of the disabled.
Since, I designed this app’s UI as a part of a hackathon, I got to work with developers as well as other researchers too. This gave me some real experience aside for the usual personal project experience.
Next Steps
We plan to add a chat option wherein the visually-impaired student and the volunteer can connect via voice messages or speech-to-text messages before having to disclose their phone numbers
In the future, we also plan to add multilingualism in the app to make it accessible to more people.
Thank you for reading. Have a great day! 🥰
Comments