Auditory Training App

Team Members: Caroline Quiroga, Jose Ibarra, Nathaniel Gonzalez, David Martinez

Product Owner: Dr. Alliete Alfano

Professor: Masoud Sadjadi

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Target Problem

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• The Auditory Training App is a web-based application designed specifically for adults who are dealing with hearing loss and are either using hearing aids or have cochlear implants.

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• The main aim of this app is to enhance auditory abilities through a variety of interactive games and listening tasks that are both engaging and enjoyable.

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• When individuals begin using hearing aids or cochlear implants, adapting to their new hearing capabilities can be challenging, especially during the early stages, which is often marked by speech recognition difficulties. To facilitate this transition, our app provides multiple ways to train their hearing abilities.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Main Issues With The Original App

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1. Lack of Varied Auditory Training Exercises:

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• The offered exercises are insufficient in terms of variety, which may lead to users disengaging from the training process for being tedious and boring. This may cause a decrease in motivation and as a result, a lower progress rate. The training should not only be effective but also fun so that users feel motivated to use it daily.

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2. User Engagement and Training Process:

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• The impact of training activities is ultimately based on how deeply the user is involved during the entire process. Specifically, concerning audio training for cochlear implant users, they (the exercises) ought to be made to suitably challenge users so that they will retain their interest over a long period. Therefore, an app with interactive elements, feedback loops, personalized goals, and progress tracking, will encourage users to stay interested and committed to their training program.

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3. Outdated and Non-intuitive User Interfaces:

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• The app had an old-fashioned user interface that can be hugely undermining for its usability, especially for those who may already struggle with the new tech. The non-intuitive design might indirectly lead to confusing navigation and eventually discourage the use of the app regularly.

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Goals for Enhancement

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1. Enhance Variety in Auditory Training Exercises:

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• Develop a wider range of interactive games and exercises that target various auditory skills, such as sound discrimination, speech perception, and auditory memory.
• Introduce new challenges and levels to keep users engaged and motivated to continue their training.

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• Improve User Engagement and Training Process:

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• Add options for users to save their progress and resume training sessions, ensuring a seamless and convenient user experience.
• Integrate background music and sound effects into the exercises to make them more immersive and engaging.
• Provide users with the ability to select different voices and accents to customize their training experience and improve adaptability.

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• Improve User Interfaces and Experience:

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• Redesign the app’s user interface to be modern, intuitive, and visually appealing, with clear navigation and user-friendly controls.
• Streamline the user experience by simplifying some features, and optimizing layout and flow

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COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

New Features

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Audio Memory Game

• The Audio Memory Game was created for cochlear implant users to specifically enhance their word recognition skills.

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• The user has to listen to a set of common words in a particular order and then be able to repeat them in the correct order.

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• The game consists of four levels of progressive difficulty, in which the user has to identify and remember the words that become more difficult by incorporating monosyllabic words and rhyming words which helps to further improve in their auditory skills.

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• This game features hints like “Replay Sequence” button that replays the sequence and a “Show Sequence” button that immediately displays the sequence of words.

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

New Game: Audio Memory

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Comprehension Activities

• The new Comprehension Activities was developed to help enhance the user’s auditory processing and comprehension skills

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• The activity is structured into three different levels, as usere’s advance through the levels the complexity of the audio and difficulty of the questions increase:
• Basic Comprehension (Level 1): Direct and easy questions based on explicit details from the short audio.
• General Knowledge (Level 2): Questions will be presented to the user in an audio format. The questions are based on common knowledge that is not stated in the audio.
• Detailed Listening Comprehension (Level 3): Questions that tests detailed recalling and contextual understanding of the audio. Each audio has a set of 3-4 questions.
• The user will also have hint buttons to replay the audio or show the question.

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FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Comprehension Activity

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

User Interface Redesign

Before After

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The UI Redesign aims to improve the user experience with the following components:

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• Home Page: A clean design, simple navigation and elements filled with live content.

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• Navigation Bar: Personalized, clear visual cues.

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• My Profile Page: A dashboard customizable by user, upgraded privacy settings, and an orderly user friendliness.

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• Settings Page: Organized category-wise with smooth interfaces.

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• Sign In/Up Pages: Simplified user interface with form inputs.

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• Games and Activities Page: User-Friendly, Easily accessible, reduced cognitive load for users.

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FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Object Design Diagram

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

System Design Architecture

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Use Case Diagram

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

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Shortcomings

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• The team counting with 4 members proved to be a challenge.
• I feel like the social media features of the forum page could be further fleshed out. Having the ability to switch between different “groups” or subcommunities would be nice for users.
• The files in the database were a little bit hard to find.
• It took time to record and edit the audio files. That time could have been for development.
• Recording voices for kids was not possible, but it is a feature that will be added in the future.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Wishlist

• Creating the reports page and implementing a way for the user to export results of activities to documents.

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• Continue development on the forum page and the social aspects that come with the creation of a forum. (Having multiple groups, replies, etc.)

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• A dark theme and further refining the UI of games and the website.

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• Adding more games for users

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• Adding voices with accents to challenge users to adapt to different voices

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING

Summary

• The Auditory Training App allowed us to apply the knowledge we learned in a more hands on experience. We worked closely with a product owner that allowed us the creative freedom to improve the app as we see fit using our own respective strengths. The ability to work in a group setting on a project of this scale (going through multiple groups and semesters) is valuable experience that will translate into the workforce. All of our team members were glad to be able to contribute what we could to the project.
• Contact:
• ngonz273@fiu.edu
• jibar030@fiu.edu
• cquir026@fiu.edu
• dmart279@fiu.edu
• Thank you for taking the time to look at our work and look forward to seeing how the application continues to develop!

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTING