Background
Avaz is a Picture-based Communication & Learning App for people with special needs such as Autism, Cerebral palsy etc. Avaz empowers people to communicate their thoughts, emotions, ideas, needs and wants and also assists them in language understanding and learning.
Since its inception in 2010, Avaz has rapidly evolved from a niche picture-based communication app to a global app in 50+ countries with 15 languages for individuals with diverse communication challenges.
Problem
Adoption of Avaz was low and users often abandoned the Avaz after downloading or before completing the onboarding.
The idea was to improve the overall user experience of Avaz's onboarding. Prior research from the team at Avaz showed that there was a 35% drop-off rate between downloading the app and buying the subscription.
Existing UI - Onboarding and Home Grid
Initial findings
Lack of trust at the beginning of the onboarding process
Probable confusion regarding app functioning & features
Choke points in the current onboarding process
Flash screen
Verify Phone number
First drop-off of customers because of the need of creating account without exploring the app
Second drop-off of customers because of the complexity and confusion
Home Screen
Goal
To guide non-expert and novice users to successfully complete their onboarding and help them build foundational understanding to use the app.
Solution overview
We narrowed down the scope of the problem and worked on helping the user with introduction and foundation building by focusing on three subareas:
Increasing user knowledge and context building: Helping users identify an introductory interface, showing users the potential outcomes of the model and how it could help them.
Creating Focus & Progressive disclosure: Segmenting the onboarding process with revelations of complexity in steps.
Indicating progress: Feedback and validation - Providing progress indicators and phase status.
User Research
Understanding the user
We tested the existing Avaz app with 10 new user participants from across the globe.
Our goal was to understand
The challenges users faced and the workarounds they employed.
80% of them tend to seek support from the Avaz customer support team to understand the basics of the app and start using the app.
Interviews
We understood how
The current onboarding experience wasn't appropriate for users who are not professionals.
Certain features were also not helpful for some user groups.
There is a moment of hesitation and lack of trust before signing up without trial.
The onboarding process was long and there was no clear indication of progress between each step and sub-step.
Sometimes the steps/ information asked were not understandable to the new users.
This at times resulted in drop-offs before creating the account.
Users often overlooked the options that were present on some screens.
Similarly, while creating the account, some features did not cater to different user groups.
Nudge to pay
Users were nudged to pay for the plan even before looking through the app right at the beginning—that too with a negative tone in the communication.
Lack of Navigation
Users could not easily identify the characteristics of interface & custmiation of available grids and features.
The available information was in the long demo videos - which were embedded in FAQs.
Deeper Insights
Most of the onboardings require additional coordination effort
Digging into the data revealed almost all the new onboarding involved some extra coordination effort such as a phone call to clarify the settings or customizations. This data showed that the experience was hardly simple and intuitive.
Poorly formed foundation structure on onboarding cause upstream usage and support load.
“...how might we help Users form a better foundation structure plan?”
This led us to the question, how might we help users form a better foundation structure plan? We proposed to help users with a base structure for the users to correctly start the usage of the app.
Three primary questions informed my design strategy:
How do you design a perfect foundation structure for everyone, everywhere?
How can we ensure the user understands the foundation structure?
How can we indicate the user's progress?
Choke points in the onboarding process
Choke points in the onboarding process
First Ideation + Feedback
Welcome to AVAZ
C
Communicator
Professional
Parent / Other communication partner
NEXT
Select the role that best describes you
Girl
Woman
Boy
Man
Which voice would you prefer?
Girl
START
Keyboard Mode
Choose Your Preferred Mode
Picture Mode
Communicator User Profiles
Signed in as kevin.rhys@gmail.com
NEXT
+
+
Add new profile
Add new profile
Meher
User Profile Dashboard
We are almost there
Create Account
Existing User
Sign In
Register to start using Avaz
3x5 Picture Grid
Getting Started with Vocabulary
Basic Vocabulary
Advanced Vocabulary
4x6 Picture Grid
What is your vocabulary level?
5x8 Picture Grid
5x8 Picture Grid
NEXT
Which is your preferred language?
ENGLISH US
ENGLISH UK
ENGLISH AUS
ENGLISH IND
Select your preferred Language
NEXT
Help us tailor your Avaz journey
Hello
NEXT
Age of communicator
Age
Name
Name of communicator
NEXT
Thank you for choosing us
CUSTOMIZE AVAZ
START RIGHT AWAY
RESTORE EXISTING BACKUP
What would you like to do
The current customization gave little explanation on the individual grids usage
Solution identified: Option to learn more about the individual grid type
This option here lacks the clarity on the payment plan or subscription option
Solution identified: Explicit information on the payment/ trial plan
Asking this early on without introduction to the app was confusing to the users
Typing and finding the language was a long process and led to missing out on several available options that could have been relevant
This categorization didn’t give context for the need of this information and enough information on the meaning of these terms for the novice user
Solution: Explanation for the need and meaning of these categories
Restore existing backup was confusing to encounter by new users also certainly for some old users to start the communication with
Solution: It was shifted to settings option in the app
Typing and finding the language was a long process and led to missing out on several available options that could have been relevant
Our Solution
#1 Designing for everyone everywhere - No one-size-fits-all
Avaz caters differently to different user groups. To design an onboarding experience for them is to build an orientation and it should not be treated as a single event. Neither should it be one-size-fits-all because each user is different. We tried to give multiple entry points to the onboarding and various discovery paths according to their needs.
#Creating context
A first time user, explores what Avaz is about through the brief support materials during onboarding. They can also see potential outcomes of the various customization Avaz can bring to them.
Before
Choke points in the onboBeforearding process
Choke points in the onboarding process
Choke points in the onboarding process
Choke points in the onboarding process
After
#Relieving the user from selecting the subscription plan right away,
Some AAC apps and the current Avaz model require selection of a subscription plan right away and they often forget to cancel the subscriptions post-trial. These bad experiences make users even more reluctant to try new products. We decided to give them access to the full basic app for a month.
Before
After
#Flexibility and Customization
Sometimes your usage of the app requires precise customization for different use cases. Avaz gives you complete control when and where you need it.
Before
Let’s Go
No Thanks
Awesome!
Now, let’s create a profile for your client!
After
After
.
.
Identifying outcomes and impact
We evaluated our designs through usability testing and surveys.
Users were asked to perform tasks pertaining to onboarding:
Create an Avaz account.
Onboard to Avaz using your backup grids.
Create accounts for 2 varied levels of vocabulary.
Take a tour of the app.
Take virtual assistants help to navigate changes in the grids.
Impact
15%
Increase in customer retention
30%
Reduction in the support calls.
70%
People satisfied with the redesign.
Retrospective
If I could take another go at this project
Improve the visual language.
A/B Test different elements.
Test the design with a larger sample size.
Work on the Introduction guide post onboarding.
Reflection and learning outcome
Tackling functional complexity and depth within assistive technology software.
Working on a new domain and gaining expertise.
Communicating with others: A lot of the work I had worked on involved ambiguity, justifying the need for a redesign of the older, existing product. This challenged me to learn to break down complex ideas into easily understandable concepts and adapt my storytelling based on my audience.
UX Research | Generative AI | Usability Testing
Reducing time taken by non-verbal communicators in creating new content faster for communication.
Imagine using a communication method where you must select words and pictures. You can group these pictures and customize them according to your needs.
Avaz AAC(Augmentative and Alternative Communication) is a picture-based Communication & Learning App for people with special needs such as Autism, Cerebral Palset etc. Avaz empowers people to communicate their thoughts, emotions, ideas, needs and wants and also assists them in language understanding and learning.
AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) - Communication devices, systems, strategies and tools that replace or support spoken language. These tools support a person who has difficulties communicating using speech.
Website: https://avazapp.com/
Introduction to the problem
Avaz realized users had difficulty setting up new communication folders and words due to the complicated long process, so they aimed to simplify it to save users time.
User Research
Ethnography
Observations were done with the AAC users - SLPs, caregivers, and teachers. They were asked to build a folder and vocabulary adding.
90%
users took long time to add words for a required context
70%
of the users added less than 10 words in one go for a particular context.
Deeper Insights
Users were asked about the tasks and their choices while performing certain tasks.
Difficulty in modeling new language needs
Difficult Navigation
Usability Testing + Task Analysis
Observations were done with the AAC users - SLPs and teachers. They were asked to build a folder and vocabulary adding for a new context of 'cooking in the kitchen'
4-6 steps
To add content to a single cell - folder/ word
20-30 secs
Time spent on adding word/ folder to each word
25 minutes
Time spent to add around 50 words
The task was-
Tedious and time-taking
Users experience confusion in creating folders with appropriate vocabulary.
Language modeling is one of the core requirements for the process.
Goal
To make the vocabulary + language expansion fast and easier to assist users in folder creation and language modeling.
Solution Overview
We worked on a three-day-long design sprint to come up with ideas to improve the overall experience. I explored design intervention on various touch points and in various ways using generative AI and language expansion methods.
Improving + increasing access to the words
Assisting users in consolidating context-related words - Making folders for users for quick communication needs
Assist users in modeling language - Helping users with not just vocabulary but also support phrases
Our Solution
.
#Option 1 - Quickly adding the words
Home Grid
Settings
Edit Cell
Add New
Add New
Choose what to add
Choose what to add
Repeat the process for n number of times
Cell Detail
Cell Detail
Old flow of adding words - long, time taking and repetitive
.
New flow of adding word - QUICK | EFFICIENT
Home Grid
Settings
Edit Cell
Add New
Select ‘Add Multiple Words’
Add Words
.
#Option 2 - Helping the user in creating for the impromptu context.
I revamped the existing grid section to provide a smart 'QUICK' folder with all context-based vocabulary groups. A user can sift through all or create a new one based on the category to find exactly what they need and save time getting to the vocabulary they will need.
Old flow of adding words - long, time taking and repetitive
Home Grid
Settings
Edit Cell
Add New
Add New
Choose what to add
Choose what to add
Repeat the process for n number of times
Cell Detail
Cell Detail
.
New flow of adding words using AI
Home Grid
Settings
Edit Cell
Add New
Prompt for generation
_
Assistance in language modelling - Picture Mode
Assisted vocabulary expansion is done for the picture mode as well.
Assistance in language modelling
Often complete training for language modeling is not possible, which can create gap in communication. Assisted language modelling is done to help users with custom communication option.
Hello Doctor
These are then filled with vocabulary associated with the ‘dentist visit’.
Testing the impact
To understand the impact on our users I conducted a usability test with 3 speech language pathologists and their students.
Task 01
Create a new QUICK FOLDER
Task 02
Add words for a given context
Task 03
Edit/ Add and Delete cells if needed
Task 04
Request for the service using new feature
Observation
We observed great satisfaction and positive feedback from the users. They liked the new quicker way of adding the words and language modelling for communication.
01
Time taken to create a new folder with 50 words
25 minutes
< 1 minutes
02
Time taken to communicate in new context
120 seconds
15 seconds
97%
of the time saved by users in creating new vocabulary
8x
faster communication than previous method
Retrospective
What did I learn?
This was my first attempt at integrating Gen AI into any of my design practice.
The collaborative sprint gave me a fun opportunity to think about my feat and navigate the challenging and stressful attempt.
This was also a novel attempt at figuring out what can be catered with a simple AAC device with text and images which can be life-changing for someone just with small additions and changes.
Challenges and Changes
The main challenge was tackling functional complexity and depth within assistive technology software.
Some of the language learning and expansion concepts were new, and finding ways to integrate them into the product was challenging.
For changes, I would like to explore more UI variations and test my solutions with wider user groups to receive feedback and integrate with our solutions.
Other Projects
#1 Using generative AI for image making
#1 Using generative AI for image making
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Curated and designed with love, caffeine and berries.
Monika, 2024 🌼
Curated and designed with love, caffeine and berries.
Monika, 2024 🌼