RACHEL GROSSMAN-KAHN
INCLUSIVE UX DESIGNER
AT&T 5G Football Helmet
A revolutionary device designed to empower D/deaf and hard of hearing athletes in American Football.
Client: AT&T and Mayda Entertainment
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Role: Accessibility Specialist and UX Designer
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Awards: The One Show- Gold Pencils in Innovation/Execution in IP and Product Design and Promotional Integrated Digital and Physical Product
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THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
For football players, clear communication is needed between the coach and quarterback during the game. However for D/deaf/HOH athletes, they can not communicate in real time unless sight-lines are established to enable communication in American Sign Language. This is difficult if not impossible while running down the field and engaged in the game. In the NCAA, Deaf football team The Bisons at Gallaudet University have an uneven playing field against hearing teams due to this lack of communication.
THE SOLUTION
Mayda Entertainment partnered with AT&T to use 5G technology and augmented reality to solve the design question: How can we use design and technology to enhance communication between coaching staff and players during a game? The solution? A next-generation football helmet equipped with a screen with a companion app for the coach to send play information to the quarterback in real time during the game.
THE PROCESS
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I was thrilled to be recruited onto this project due to my unique background of being both a UX Designer and former professional sign language interpreter. I studied ASL at Gallaudet University so I was familiar with the football team (including the fact that they created the huddle!) and some of the unique challenges that D/deaf athletes face. I was hired during the early stages of the project: user research had already been done and they had an early stage interface design for the app. I was tasked with evaluating their design for accessibility considerations, as well as to design an improved, accessible version of the interface and helmet screen.
I started with the design evaluation. Some accessibility concerns were obvious right off the bat, such as the screen not being very glanceable due to a lack of negative space and padding between buttons. When I imagined the football game experience, I realized that the whole interface needed to be glanceable and usable quickly due to the coach running around and watching the action on the field, as well as signing. I also recommended the button padding be at least 12 pixels wide with larger touch points for accuracy in a finger touching the correct button. The design also failed in color contrast as the light grey text against a darker grey button that at 1.57 did not meet a 4.5:1 contrast ratio and thus was difficult for anyone to read, much less a low vision user.
I then set out to redesign the interface to have a more user-friendly design and meet all accessibility guidelines. This was my favorite part of this project as I felt like I was really making an impact to the project. Some design decisions I made were to visually chunk together each individual task such as the quick buttons at the top, the screens in the middle and the play information at the bottom. I came up with the idea for the quick buttons for easy access communication of alerts and information, and I added visual icons with corresponding labels for clarity. This is good to reduce the cognitive load on the user as well as good for users who communicate visually and may have English as their second language (like D/deaf people) and those with cognitive disabilities. I made over the buttons by adding outlines and fill and checkmarks when selected so that the pressed state was communicated by more than just color for color blind users.
I also put together a design for the semi circular screen that displays over the eye on the helmet. I conducted research into wearable technology such as Google glasses. While brainstorming, I thought about what kind of colors would provide the most contrast against the quarterback’s view of the football field. That’s how I landed on the large, white text as my recommendation.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
On October 7, 2023 Gallaudet debuted the football helmet (with special permission from the NCAA) in a competitive game. Wearing the helmet, the quarterback, Brandon Washington, scored a game-winning touchdown. There was huge media coverage, from ESPN to Fox Sports to Good Morning America and CNN. "I believe in a few years everyone from the NCAA to NFL will be using this technology." - Warren Keller, Athletic Director.​
When the final product was released I was so excited to see that many of my design and accessibility recommendations had been implemented, like the white text on the helmet screen and the button contrast and some of the layout on the interface. I was proud to have forwarded inclusivity in sports for all athletes to compete at a level playing field.
