The Design Age Institute has supported us with a grant to develop a prototype of our Hearing Birdsong app.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to share three key principles of user-centred design that have been at the core of the project, and highlight the potential of this approach to humanising other aspects of the healthcare design space.

Principle 1: ‘Nothing for us, without us’

The Hearing Birdsong project was borne from a two-day intensive ‘sandpit’ workshop hosted by UCL, which brought together healthcare professionals, researchers and audiologists, as well as people with various types of hearing loss.

As Jean Straus highlighted in an article for the BMJ , “if an engagement event is co-designed, patients-who are often excluded from events like this-can be involved. We had a palantypist, so that those who couldn’t hear the conversation could read what was said in real time. We had a Scribe who made illustrated panels of each of the ideas, to help the teams visualise their concepts and pitch them.”

Building empathy and a deep understanding of those you’re designing for is fundamental to the user-centred process, and the event offered a great opportunity to learn from people on both sides of the problem, those with technical knowledge, and those with lived-experience

Principle 2: Seek out human insight to find breakthrough ideas.

Through people I spoke to I was shocked to learn that of the 12 million people in the UK with hearing loss, 9 million remain undiagnosed, and yet the diagnostic process has not changed in 50 years.

How did current tests work? Why weren’t more people diagnosed? There was lots of information to process, but for me, it was a patient’s experience that brought to life the issue, and an idea for a more humane solution.

Hearing Birdsong was inspired by Angela, who told me the story of her favourite forest walk: how she knew the route like the back of her hand, the pattern of the light in autumn, the density of the frozen earth in winter. But more than anything, she knew the little melodies of the birds that greeted her on her daily pilgrimage. Until one day, she noticed the songs had faded.

This prompted me to ask, could the reassuring sounds of nature be used to encourage early screening of this hidden health issue?

In contrast to the stressful clicks, beeps, and white noise of an antiquated hearing test , birdsong is proven to boost wellbeing and could provide a therapeutic and non-invasive alternative to encourage people to participate and consider the health of their hearing.

The concept captured the imagination of the jury for the way it mediated between technology and user-experience, and we won grant funding at the Sandpit to realise the idea.

Principle 3: Prototype, Test, Improve!

Since the Sandpit I’ve been working with the Dyson School of Engineering, Imperial College and the steering group to develop a working prototype that uses modulated bird-calls within an ambient forest soundscape to simulate the frequency bands of a traditional test.

A prototype is an early version of a product built to test a concept or process, and is a great way to get feedback from the people you’re designing for in order to quickly test and iteratively improve designs.

There were many directions we could take the project, and before the pandemic shut down our cities last year we ran open public sessions to get feedback on designs as they developed. We sought hard-to-reach demographics in the hope that their insights could further fuel design development. Amongst others, twenty members of the Hackney Brocals joined us for a demonstration followed by a half-day design workshop.

Striking insights emerged when the Brocals were shown a range of contemporary hearing aids available on the NHS. It was clear the devices far exceeded the group’s expectations on how compact and discreet they could be. Apprehension quickly turned to curiosity — and with the Hearing Birdsong installation providing a tranquil backdrop — the group launched into an open and candid conversation, reflecting on their experiences of hearing health.

Potential for this approach beyond Hearing Birdsong.

For a while now, product and service designers have been championing the idea of a user-centred methodology, and yet our approach to buildings and spaces lags behind. As a product designer working within the built-environment, I’m interested in how user-centred design could humanise other aspects of our critical social infrastructure.

The Design Council recently published a case-study showing how their user-centred design process led to a 50% reduction in the number of aggressive incidents in the three hospitals where it was trialled (Violence in A&E costs the NHS at least £69m a year in staff absences alone). So, clearly there’s a compelling case that our environment’s design can also benefit from a user-centred approach too.

What’s next for Hearing Birdsong?

I’m now working on a variety of different applications of the Hearing Birdsong concept — from an online directory of birdsong collected from around the world, to a smartphone app, allowing us to safely deliver the experience to a far wider audience.

It’s an ongoing project — you can learn more about the project as it develops . if you would be interested in supporting Hearing Birdsong please get in touch, and feel free to leave any comments or questions below.