Phonology Speech Therapy App Redesign
Role - UX Researcher
Tools - Figma, FigJam
Stakeholders - Austin Speech Labs
Introduction:
“Phonology” is a speech therapy app designed to help users improve their speech skills through practice identifying and producing sounds. It was developed as a tool for speech therapists to use with their clients in their in-person and remote therapy sessions. However, a powerful secondary benefit of the app is that clients are able to use it independently between speech therapy sessions.
As a speech therapist, I was interested in Phonology as a convenient, digitized version of Phonomotor Therapy, a therapeutic modality I had frequently used in the past. I downloaded the app and started exploring.
The Problem:
Analyzing through the lens of both a UX researcher and a speech therapist, I noticed that there were several aspects of the app that violated usability heuristics, violated principles of universal design, and failed to meet multiple de facto speech therapy industry standards.
Heuristic Analysis:
Using Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics, I completed a more in-depth analysis of the “Match Picture-Sound” feature and noted issues in the following areas: