User Research, Interaction, Visual Design, Prototyping & Testing.
September'17 - December'19
“I don't want to go to school, my friends don't like me and never listen to me”.
- Julie, India
Normal disfluency is stuttering that begins during a child's intensive language-learning years and resolves on its own sometime before puberty. It is considered a normal phase of language development. About 75 out of 100 children who stutter get better without treatment. But there are children who suffer from primary hesitancy and get bullied in their schools or classes.
Breaks or disruptions that occur in the flow of speech are labelled "disfluencies". Flounder is a game based application for kids which would result in improved speech fluency, boost their confidence and which would make them feel positive about themselves.
After meeting the kids, I found that there is repetition of sounds “ap-ap-apple” or repetitions of syllables “ca-ca-cat” or prolongation such as stretching of sounds. These games are designed in a way which would solve these basic problems and steadily improve the rate of speech and confidence.
Various levels of games and the intensity is very low at the beginning and as it goes up the levels would be challenging.
Each game would give the statistical data and thus would reflect some positive changes or results.
Parents can control the activity and keep a track of the progress in terms of speed, time and pronounciations.
Stuttering can become more difficult to deal with as children grow older. They may become more self-conscious and lack confidence in speaking situations. If left untreated, stuttering has the potential to affect future decisions including job choices and social relationships.
Kids often face problems during social gatherings or in schools. They are not able to communicate and that gives a major set back.
I met Mr. Ajit Harisinghani who is the founder of Speech Foundation India. Speech Foundation India. I had a conversation with kids and realized that they have fear in mind and Mr. Ajit also explained how speech hesitancy affects child psychology and how it can be controlled. I also did some therapeutic exercises with his students at the speech foundation to understand human behavioral patterns.
Child behavior and perception has a major role to play
in disfluency. The child avoids talking situations or expresses concerns about speech. Children prefer writing instead of having a conversation with their parents.
While interacting with kids actively listen to them when they are talking. Understand their psychology and direct your attention to what the kid is saying. Maintain eye contact do not show any negative reaction when he/she is stuttering.
I conducted interviews with parents and their kids and visited psychology centers to gain insights about the thought process that revolves around. Therefore, creating user personas helped me in understanding and defining the constraints of this solution.
Considering the target audience and users I though of creating a game based Application which will focus specifically on disfluency. Disfluency is a real problem with a feasible solution. With daily use, this App will help any child to build and improve their rate of speech steadily and finally enhance their confidence! Their parents can also monitor their development as the App also analyses the growth or the rate of speech of child after every game.
After defining the flows and user journeys I decided to sketch ideas and illustrate the user story. Sketches made it easy to understand the look and feel of the application taking into consideration the target audience of this application.
After defining the look and feel I designed some icons and UI elements that will be used in the application.
Below is the task flow where kid starts playing level 1 of the game and earns stars based on his performance.
This game based Application which is focused specifically on disfluency will definitely help children with various aspects such as boosting confidence and speech development. Disfluency is a real problem with a feasible solution. With daily use this App will help any child to build and improve their rate of speech steadily and finally enhance their confidence! Their parents can also monitor their development as the App also analyses the growth or the rate of speech of child after every game.
