THE AUGMENT hearing aids
Our first project in Design for Health was to redesign a medical assistive device that we had first-hand experience with. Naturally, as someone who wore hearing aids for many years (as well as due to research ethics limitations), I approached the project autobiographically. Through methods like experience mapping and semi-structured interviews, I rekindled my connection to a more youthful self, who was shy on his first day of class. With visual reference to similar children’s products like toothbrushes and sci-fi toys, this project seeks to redefine the stigmatic language around such medical assistive devices. How might we take the “aid” out of “hearing aid?” THE AUGMENT is an augmented-reality hearing device which empowers the sensory-alienated child to achieve personalized sensory immersion and transcend normality (“hearing on par with everyone else”) into technologically-augmented exceptionality. After all, every superhero needs a trusty sidekick. "ID 4: Design for Health," OCAD U, September-October 2018.