ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — Read, Record allows people in remote communities, often with limited technical experience, to easily read and record content, simplifying the process of producing audio Bible translations.
Read, Record provides a seamless platform where people can:
Select and display texts for reading.
Record audio directly while reading.
Submit recordings for subsequent translation stages.
Read, Record empowers users to select and display text for reading and translation in a wide range of languages.
Text Display and Navigation: Simplifies reading with clear text presentation and intuitive audio recording tools.
Integrated Audio Recording: Enables people to record spoken translations directly within the interface.
Submission Options: Provides a way to submit recorded audio files for further use.
Task Assignment and Management: Simplifies user creation and task allocation, enabling administrators to assign text chunks for reading, proofreading, or reviewing with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
Comprehensive Dashboard: Showcases graphs to track project progress at various levels, including overall project completion, individual user contributions (e.g., reader, proofreader, reviewer), and progress by Bible book.
User-Friendly Interface: Designed for users with limited technical expertise, prioritizing accessibility, simplicity and clarity.
Traditional button sizes didn’t work well due to visual challenges and usability issues. We designed larger elements for easier tapping, reducing strain, and simplifying text reading and audio recording.
Introducing larger elements also helped establish a more distinct visual hierarchy, which is especially beneficial for our target audience, including those with limited experience with technology or eyesight issues.
Detail: Dashboard.
Qualitative Research: Stakeholders provide valuable input, trusting the design expertise brought to the process. Interviews with linguists and translators worldwide uncover pain points and workflow inefficiencies. Insights from these conversations are synthesized into detailed journey maps.
Prototyping: Low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes are quickly created to visualize insights from research and stakeholder discussions. These designs often evolve in real-time during interviews, enabling immediate feedback and fostering collaboration.
Design Systems: A comprehensive design component library is built and maintained in Figma, incorporating variables, variants, color palettes, typography, and usage guidelines. Decisions on colors and typography are made collaboratively with stakeholders. Close collaboration with the front-end developer ensures alignment between design and development. Design artifacts are often informed by existing code libraries or tailored to leverage the developer’s expertise.
Usability Testing and Iteration: Low-fidelity prototypes, high-fidelity prototypes, and code artifacts are used to test ideas with the target audience. Workshops, organized with stakeholders and the product manager, provide valuable feedback that drives iterative improvements.
Metrics and Analysis: Heatmaps, click-through rates, and session durations are tracked, especially after deployment, to refine the web app based on people behavior.
Detail: Main menu.
Enhanced Efficiency (Release 1): Reduced project completion time by an average of 35%, single-line recording time by 25%, proofreading time by 30%, and chapter review time by 20%.
Positive User Feedback: People praise the tool for its straightforward design and practical features.
Cost Savings (Release 1): Reduced errors and significantly lowered overall translation project costs.
Ensuring text remains fully visible without scrolling poses a significant challenge, particularly on smaller screens and with longer text lines.
Balancing simplicity with feature richness to meet diverse people needs.
Ensuring robust audio recording functionality across multiple devices.
This project reinforces the value of iterative user-centered design in creating solutions for specialized workflows. It highlights the importance of designing tools that are both accessible and powerful for users with varying technical expertise.
Explore AI-powered features to better associate audio with text.
Enhance accessibility features for people with disabilities.
Addressing the lack of options to correct errors in the displayed text and recorded audio.
