Reimagining Hearing Aid Fitting as a Collaborative Experience

10 million Germans are affected by hearing impairments, yet only 37% use aids to help them in their daily lives.¹

Hearing aids are highly personal devices that are perceived as a part of one’s body. However, becoming accustomed to wearing one can be a strenuous process that often requires multiple sessions for fine adjustments to be successful.

audifon uses a specialized software to “fit” the devices to patients’ individual circumstances and needs. For their newest audift version, we set out to fundamentally rethink the software user experience and the way it is used to support the fitting process.

Year
2013

Collaborators

Zühlke Engineering GmbH

User Research
Medical Technology
Service Design
Usability Engineering

The design of the software was awarded with a Red Dot Design Award and recognised as a German Design Award nominee.

Process and Insights

To increase the retention rate and reach more people with these much-needed aids, an extensive assessment with more than 40 hearing care professionals provided insights into the situations of use and revealed the previous software’s usability issues.

The software before and after the redesign.

Before After

Being in control

Recognizing that clients can often feel powerless in the situation, we wanted to create a strong feeling of control and self-efficacy. Active participation in the process increases the willingness to accept and integrate the needed technology into their lives.

As we redesigned the software itself, we focused on reimagining the service experience of the fitting as a cooperative process.