In shaping SpeakEasy, we grounded every decision in our core values and mission, taking the context, goal, and problem into account. That lead us to define seven non-negotiable elements that make the app as thoughtful, inclusive, and impactful as it can be.
Core Values 💪
Offers users a simple way to connect or get support.
Maintains visual consistency with the rest of the app’s calm and accessible design.
Reinforces trust and community with visible contact channels for questions or concerns.
Engages users with riddles that require verbal responses—encouraging speech in a low-pressure format.
Visual and textual feedback reinforces user success and builds confidence.
Game design supports regular, casual practice without feeling clinical.
Promotes spontaneous speech with category-based prompts.
Encourages creativity and vocabulary use, which helps stretch verbal skills.
Interactive timer and point system make it fun and replayable.
Helps users think out loud by ranking words on a spectrum (e.g. hot to cold).
Social design lets users play solo or with others—encouraging practice in group settings.
Builds flexibility in speech while still being lighthearted and engaging.
Offers users a simple way to connect or get support.
Maintains visual consistency with the rest of the app’s calm and accessible design.
Reinforces trust and community with visible contact channels for questions or concerns.
Introducing Speak Easy! A voice-based party game designed to collect real-world data from people who stutter, while making the experience actually fun. Think classic road trip games meets speech tech research, all wrapped in an engaging, user-friendly interface.
Final Prototype 🎮
A celebratory Salt & Straw treat after our win! 🍦
Winning second place was definitely a plus, but what really stuck with me from this experience was just how quickly our team clicked. It was the first time I’d ever worked with this group, but from the jump, ideas were flying around like popcorn, every single person brought something brilliant to the table. I remember thinking, "Yep, these are my people. I want to do every designathon with them from now on." Amazing designers, inspiring collaborators, and just a dream team all around.
We also learned a lot from the judges’ feedback, especially around how to push our idea even further. They pointed out that most speech technologies improve faster when exposed to fuller, more complex phrases rather than just short words. It helped us realize that if we expanded the types of responses in our game, we could make a bigger impact on how speech tech learns and evolves. So if we were to revise our prototype, we would implement more games that utilize longer sentences and stories.
Key Takeaways 🗝️
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
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
The Problem 😤
How can we empower individuals who stutter to practice speaking confidently in a supportive environment while contributing to more inclusive speech recognition technologies?
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
The Context 👩💻
Current speech technologies, such as automated phone menus or computer-generated captions, often fail to work well for people who stutter due to training on fluent speech. To make these speech technologies more responsive and accessible for people who stutter, it is important to collect more diverse stuttered speech data to improve these technologies.
The Goal ✅
Your goal is to design a data collection process that empowers people who stutter to contribute speech samples on their terms for building more inclusive AI speech technologies. Focus on the experience of providing consent, contributing samples, and understanding dataset use.
Examples might include a website, app, platform...
provided from the sponsors AImpower.org
What if practicing speech could feel less scary and more like a game?
Developed SpeakEasy, a gamified mobile app that offers engaging, low-pressure speaking exercises tailored for individuals who stutter.
Implemented goal setting and streak tracking to motivate users through personalized objectives and consistent practice.
Implemented goal setting and streak tracking to motivate users through personalized objectives and consistent practice.
Contributed to inclusive AI development by collecting diverse speech data to improve speech recognition technologies for individuals with speech differences.
Ensured transparency and trust by clearly communicating data usage policies and obtaining informed consent for speech data collection.
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The Solution 😝
