Misophonic

Project Overview

People with misophonia often experience anxiety over sounds that are common in everyday life, and this seriously affects their normal lives. Hence, an application with wearable products is designed to help people with misophonia quickly detach from their anxiety, allowing them to better participate in social activities and experience the fun of life.

My Role

UI/UX Designer/Researcher, Product Designer

Type

Individual

Date

April 2024 - June 2024

Tool

Discover

Background Research

Misophonia is a mental disorder characterized by extreme sensitivity and reactivity to specific, typically repetitive and normal sounds like:

Chewing

Breathing

Whispering

It is also a highly prevalent disease with a global prevalence of 5%-20%, but few people aware that they have it.

The only three treatments - Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Exposure Therapy have not been sufficiently studied to determine their effectiveness, which means it is difficult for patients to get effective treatment.

Misophonia not only influences patients' physical health, but also mental health, including:

Increased Heart Rate

Tightness in Head and Chest

High Blood Pressure

Display Physically Violent

Avoid Social Activities

Damage Relationships

Market Analysis

Conclusion:

Most products are for noise rather than bothering sound

Most products are not for social occasions

There are no products designed for misophonia on the market

Define

Insights via Questionnaire

By administering the questionnaire to 15 people and analyzing the results of the data, I summarized four insights:
1. Misophonia occurs very frequently
2. Msophonia patients have a very anxious state of mind
3. Misophonia affecs social behaviors, competence, and intimacy of sufferers
4. Misophonia patients have differentt sounds or music to reduce anxiety

Insights via Interview

Through the interviews with the eight interviewees, I concluded another four insights:
1. Most patients choose too use headphones or earbuds when misophonia strikes
2. Misophonia deeply affects people's social skills
3. Most people do not understand the fear of certain sounds
4. Misophonia patients will try to avoid social events where bothersome sounds may occur

Observations

At the same time, I've asked people with misophonia to keep a diary of their fear of sound to design an app and product that are more relevent to their daily life.

Persona

Annie who is deeply bothered by sounds because of misophonia

Robert who has already found his way to relieve misophonia

Nancy who is just sensitive to noise

How Might We

Deliver

Storyboards

Annie and her friends go to a restaurant, and they choose to sit by the door.

The repeated sound of the door opening and closing causes Annie’s anxiety. Normally she will put on her earphones and listen to music to divert attention, but she can’t do that now.

Concept Iteration and Key User Flow

After determining the basic user flow, and based on the eight insights I came up with during the questionnaire and interviews and the user journey map, I decided to add the following features to the app design：

1. Feature 1: Playlist Personalization - Questionnaire Insight 4 Related
Misophonia patients have their own soothing sounds they prefer to ease their anxiety, so a customized playlist will be more applicable to each individual.

2. Feature 2: Upload Your Own Soothing Music/Sounds - Questionnaire Insight 4 Related
People with misophonia have their own soothing sounds, and when they can't find what they want in the app, they can upload it themselves to maximize relaxation.

3. Feature 3: Choose Onset Album in Advance - User Journey Map Related
People with misophonia can become anxious before participating in social activities, and having them set up the music or sounds they listen to at the onset in advance can help reduce their anxiety.

4. Feature 4: Ear-clip Earbuds - Interview Insight 1 + Interview Insight 4 Related
Ear clip earbuds fulfill the need for headphones for people with misophonia during an attack, and also fit perfectly into social situations.

5. Feature 5: Bluetooth Connection Instruction - User Journey Map Related
A detailed instruction on bluetooth connection will ease the anxiety of people with misophonia who first use this product.

6. Feature 6: Misophonia Information - Interview Insight 3 Related
The introduction to misophonia can give others a better understanding of patients inner state and allow them to fit in better in social situations.

App Mid-fi Wireframes

Gradually, the sound of her friends chewing, other guests talking, sniffling, eating noodles, and the sound of utensils touching dishes, etc. all become so clearly and loud to her.

Opening Page

Concept Ideation

Step 1: Brainstorming and picking possible features

Step 2: Generating initial concept - Misophonic

User Journey Map

More and more sounds make her anxious and scared, and she cannot even have a normal conversation with her friends, but she just cannot leave.

Searching Page

Personalized Searching Page

Upload Page

Profile

Bluetooth Connection Instruction

Pre-Notification

Notification - Warning

Ear-clip Earbuds and Sensor Prototype

User Testing

Personalized Playlist

Post-Notification

After making th mid-fi prototypes, I tested them on 5 people.

During the testing process, I checked the soundness of the design by following these steps:
1. Experience Prototype
Using wire-framing prototypes and product prototypes to simulate user scenarios, observe user perceptions and behaviors
2. Think-aloud
To understand users' implicit needs by verbalizing their mental models about the prototype
3. System Usability Scale
An easy to use, standardized method for quantifying product usability in manageable samples

UI/UX Final Iteration Summary

Based on the feedback given by users, I made the following adjustments:

1. Delete Pre-notification Page
Pre-notification of heart rate will make users more anxious. Removing this page would allow them to accept their state more naturally and use the product better.

2. Clearer Division of Functions
Adding more visible headers and using the same width of frames to divide the functional areas will make the page more concise and clear.

3. Visualized Heart Rate
Visualizing users’ heart rate allows users to observe their heart rate changes more intuitively and vividly.

4. Simpler Product Design
The more minimalist design is more suitable for different social occasions and more convenient for users to match. Meanwhile, removing the wire part of the design can make wearing more comfortable.

UI Design

Start Page

Soothing words calm users down when they open the app
Information on misphonia for others to understand

Personalized Playlist

Top playlist recommendations
Bothersome sounds that can be found and added
Personalized playlist recommendations by each person's different bothersome sounds

Upload Page

Upload one’s own soothing music or sounds for anxiety relief
Upload personalized covers to create one’s own albums

Profile Page

Personalized Design

Another section to search or add bothersome sounds
Set in advance what to listen when misophonia kicks in
Set heart rate reminder range
Collection in recent activities can be renamed for easier recording

Personalized Design

Instruction of bluetooth connection

Behavioral Records

Recent records of the played music or sounds, date, heart rate and trigger sounds

Recent Records Collection

Depending on the number of music or sounds listened to, collection can be generated
The name of the collection can be modified to facilitate recording

Bluetooth Connection Instruction

An instruction on bluetooth connection for ear-clip earbuds and sensor helps users be more prepared and reduce their anxiety before engaging in social activities

Bluetooth Connection

Bluetooth connection is required for both the ear-clip earbuds and the sensor
Users can monitor the real-time heart rate through the app, which monitors the heart rate and plays soothing music or sounds through the ear-clip earbuds

Bluetooth Connection

When the heart rate reaches the set value, the app will automatically send a reminder
No need to unlock the screen, just tap the reminder to jump to the playlist set in advance
After heart rate calms down, users can tap pause directly on the lock screen
Heart rate fluctuation is shown through touch bar