Visual Doorbell

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CO-DESIGNING AN ADAPTIVE

DOORBELL FOR DEAF USERS

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By Arwa, Krizia and Steven

OUR PROCESS

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Prototyping/ User Testing

Research

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Research Recap

About Mariella

• She lost her hearing at a young age and has a cochlear implant
• She prefers to take off her cochlear when she is home, so struggles to hear when people are at the door
• She is looking to be visually notified when the door is being knocked.

Our Client

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Mariella Paulino

Project Manager,

CUNY Techworks

Overview of Mariella’s house

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MARIELLA’S CURRENT SOLUTION: GUESTS NEED TO CALL AHEAD

“I would ask my guests to call ahead so I know they are coming. This is the only workaround I have done so far.”

Research Recap

Some of the alternatives that we researched did not particularly fit the needs of our client to to:

• Price
• A required technical background
• Bad reviews on Amazon about inaccuracy

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Prototyping/User Testing

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2

User Flow

Wired LED Prototype

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Lo-Fi Prototype #1 (looks-like prototype)

Wearable Solution

First Demo at the Prototype Fund Workshop

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Lo-Fi Testing and User Insights

Duration of Use

How long should the knock be before the light shows up?

Is the light still visible? How long must the light stay on from the time the doorbell rang ?

Form

Consider the way the bracelet looks on the user, is it sleek?

Ask about colors and light. What color light does the user prefer? Rainbows seem to be too busy.

User Scenarios

What does the user do when wearing it?

Is knocking equivalent to lighting up?

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Prototype 2: Adding Wireless Connection

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Prototype 2: How We Built It

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Light Enclosure

Doorbell

User Testing and Feedback

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User Testing and Feedback

Mariella’s feedback after testing:

Pivoted from wearable to device to be mounted

Brightness of light is comfortable and noticeable

Knowing when someone walked in the door even without knocking (based on our testing glitch)

Power source using battery to power the custom doorbell

Smaller enclosure for an outside doorbell switch

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Final Delivery

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3

Prototype Final

Early Enclosure

Demo Day Enclosure

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Demo Day-Video

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Debugging

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What We’ve Learned

After frying 2 ESP 8266 boards a week before finals:

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Never plug on the wall. Use a USB cable with adapter, instead of a regular power cable.

Wireless Communication is tough to demistify, so fail fast, ask questions, debug and rework the code 10x over.

Based from feedback at the Prototype Fund Showcase, there are ways to customize code so that it uses up less energy.

We want to test the piezo sensor as a secondary switch for the doorbell.

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THANKS!

Any questions?

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