Hearing aids are essentially the audio equivalent to glasses. But why are glasses normalized and hearing aids stigmatized?
They're made to blend in — clear, skin-colored, invisible by design. They're associated with aging, rarely used by young people. And they're treated like outliers when they do. That’s stigma.
What began as an advocacy platform grew into thoughtful UX that makes hearing aids easier to use and more technologically advanced.
I’ve been deaf in my left ear since I was four.
My brother and grandmother also struggle with hearing loss.
Accessibility is core to all three of our lived experiences. Designing Crescendo was personal, and every decision was cross-referenced with data from real hearing aid users.
Crescendo began at school where I established a comprehensive brand strategy, including:
Brand messaging and story.
Logo, typography, color palette.
Usage and marketing mockups.
This allowed for an easy transition to UX without worrying about visual identity.
I interviewed 10 users, including my own family, and ran ethnographic testing to observe how people actually used their hearing aid devices.
Key friction points:
Tech-forward users wanted technology, control, customization, and cleaner UI.
Non-tech users preferred automation and “set-it-and-forget-it” simplicity.
Everyone was frustrated with outdated interfaces and clunky support systems.
These pain points were validated in competitive analysis with products like ReSound, Phonak, and Starkey that were missing that mark.
Resultingly, different users needed the same product to work very differently.
Using affinity mapping, I identified four opportunity areas:
In-Depth Features: improving technological capabilities in hearing aids.
AI Automation: setting for auto-adjustment to surroundings.
In-App Support: no 1-800 numbers, live in-app support.
Health Monitoring: turning hearing aids into one-stop-shop health devices.
Research showed a need for control and ease.
So I began sketching a core audio interface and features that could adapt to different user types while remaining elegant and intuitive.
The transition from sketches to mockups was relatively simple with the style already defined.
Moderated usability tests with 10 users (both younger + older segments) confirmed usability and exposed friction points.
4/5 younger users spent 2+ min exploring audio features, confirming engagement.
3/5 older users struggled with features like the equalizer.
Those 3 users expressed relief when discovering AI Adapt and the support tab.
9/10 users understood every feature without extra guidance.
8/10 said they would prefer Crescendo over their current apps.
The 2 who didn't cited concerns over costs of switching.
Future refinements could include improving prominence of AI Adapt, increasing access through smartwatch integration, and drafting a pricing model that makes switching viable.
Aligning real experience to the project helped me buy in to solving the problem.
Don't assume a one-size-fits-all, so instead build for flexibility across audiences.
View the range of digital design work I've done across mobile and web.
© 2025 jacobstarr.work. All rights reserved.
