Daniel is an outgoing and motivated college student who’s passionate about public speaking and dreams of becoming a broadcast journalist. However, his stutter often makes speaking in class or in group settings nerve-wracking. He’s been searching for tools that help him practice speaking in a low-pressure, encouraging environment. When he learned about SpeakEasy, a gamified app that helps people who stutter practice speech and contribute to inclusive AI development, he was immediately interested.
Build speaking confidence through daily, low-stakes practice.
Set personal speaking goals and track his own progress.
Contribute his voice in a way that feels empowering—not exploitative.
Be part of a community that supports speech diversity and AI fairness.
Age: 19
Occupation: Undergraduate Student (Communications/Business Major)
Location: Santa Cruz, California
Technology Comfort Level: Medium to High
Platforms Used: Mobile Apps, Youtube, Discord, Spotify
“I avoid automated phone systems—they never understand me.”
“Most speech apps feel clinical or judgmental, not fun.”
“It’s not always clear how my data is used when I contribute to something.”
Background
Frustrations
Goals
User Persona: Daniel Reyes
People Love Streaks
Goal Setting
We also wanted to focus on the benefits of a goal setting. Research in Teaching and Learning in Medicine emphasized that participants who engaged in goal-oriented feedback and writing perceived improved rapport and a deeper understanding of learner goals. We wanted to incorporate this principles in our app by allowing users to set personalized speaking goals, fostering a sense of progress and achievement, which not only enhances user motivation but also builds empathy and awareness in their speech journey.
We found out that essentially, people love streaks. People love a tangible counter that keeps them motivated and consistent for a task or an activity. Researchers at the University of Delaware, highlight the impact of streak-based engagement, which is why we wanted our app to incorporate a streak-based system that encourages users to engage daily. By tracking consecutive days of participation, users feel a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue practicing. This feature not only helps build speaking confidence over time but also reinforces positive habits that contribute to long-term speech improvement.
That ties into implementing a reward system. Speak Easy applies a reward system, which recognizes consistent engagement and progress. By providing incentives and positive reinforcement, our app helps users stay motivated, fostering a sense of autonomy and satisfaction in their speech development journey.
Engagement & Reward System
We wanted to ensure that people of all ages and backgrounds could have a great experience. To achieve this, we incorporated a variety of options to accommodate different preferences and needs.
Inclusivity
Our goal was to maintain a clean and readable interface while also incorporating vibrant and inviting design elements to appeal to users of all ages and demographics.
Readability
We sought to implement as many inclusive features as possible to make the app enjoyable for everyone. In particular, we designed functions to support individuals who stutter, ensuring they feel included and considered throughout the design process.
Accessibility
We aimed to create an engaging and enjoyable app while also leveraging speech data to help individuals who stutter. This would contribute to improving data collection and speech technologies.
Intentionality
By fostering a community for individuals with speech difficulties, this platform provides a fun and engaging way to play games while also offering opportunities to practice speaking, either alone or with others.
Community
To ensure transparency, we have implemented a consent notice before users sign in, clearly outlining how their information will be used and how the games will function.
Trust & Transparency
When it comes to the data collection part, the back end will consist of waveforms from users' responses paired with the expected or inferred words. These data pairs will be sent to companies under contract.
These key-value pairs will help speech technology companies train their models on more diverse data, making speech recognition more inclusive for individuals who may not speak as fluidly as others.
Data Collection
High Fidelity Prototypes
UCSC SVC Designathon - February 2025
SpeakEasy
Speak Easy is an all-in-one game designed to support individuals who stutter by providing engaging and interactive activities to practice speaking. At the same time, Speak Easy helps improve speech technologies by collecting valuable data to enhance speech recognition and fluency support. Our mission is to empower users with confidence in their speech while contributing to the future of inclusive communication technology.
UI/UX Designer
Roles
UI/UX Designers (4)
UX Researchers (2)
Data Collection (2)
Team
February 22nd, 2025 - February 24th, 2025
Timeline
Adobe Creative Cloud
Figma
Tools
