Pidgin

Problem

With the sudden shift to remote workplaces due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the needs of many workers who are D/deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) were not sufficiently supported in video conferencing software. Since this software has become the norm for communication among many remote businesses, employees from the DHH community find it difficult to keep up and are, as a result, left out of the conversation.

‍

DHH individuals struggle because:

• Virtual communication eliminates contextual cues which are often relied upon for communication by the DHH community.
• Video conferencing software often lags in both audio and video, making communication more difficult.
• Some conferencing programs provide transcripts, but they are often inaccurate and delayed.

‍

Research

Pidgin is targeted at DHH employees and their co-workers.

In the remote work environment, many DHH workers collaborate with their hearing co-workers. It was important to my team that our interface accommodate our DHH users while not disrupting our hearing users so everyone could fully engage and participate in the conversation.

For marketing purposes, we targeted managers with DHH employees working remotely. Our goal was to appeal to the needs of both of our users by providing improved accessibility features that are lacking in existing programs.

‍

Solution

Our proposed solution did not stray too far from existing video conferencing software. We designed a chat window, settings, and a participant list.

Pidgin stands out with its live editable transcript.

Through our research, we determined that existing live transcription technology is never 100% accurate. By allowing the meeting participants to edit incorrect transcriptions, our DHH users would receive the most accurate information in a timely fashion.

‍

Testing

In testing our prototype, we discovered that some of our UI elements were not clear and would require labels. We also discovered a source for confusion in the settings window. The options we had for video display were overwhelming and not entirely clear.

Moving forward, we decided to prioritize clarity. We implemented this in our UI elements by either labelling or replacing elements with more familiar icons, and simplifying the settings window.

‍

Challenges

This was one of the first projects that my team and I worked on entirely remotely. This environment pushed us to be creative with how we collaborated throughout the entire project, particularly in the early ideation stages. Using tools such as Miro, digital whiteboards, and Figma, we managed to quickly adapt our activities and participation to a digital space.

Through working with a new team on one of my first entirely remote team projects, I learned to quickly identify the design process of my team members. This was helpful as it enabled me to effectively communicate and collaborate with my team members at different stages of the project and adapt my design process to best fit the needs and pace of my teammates’ work.

‍

Impact on the Business

In 2015, 9.5% of Canada's population was part of the DHH community. Over the last 6 years, this number showed no signs of decreasing. In 2020, virtual communication skyrocketed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the rise of workplaces choosing to work remotely or use a hybrid model in 2021, Pidgin's target customers became upwards of 20% of the Canadian population (7.52 million users), but it's doesn't stop there.

Pidgin's software has the ability to expand into educational environments. Our focus on supporting the DHH community ensures Pidgin stands out as an accessible tool of choice across countless industries, paving the way to greater recognition and partnerships with productivity tools.

‍