Oratory

Oratory was born from watching brilliant ideas going unseen because the presenter was not comfortable or even scared of public speaking. This digital ecosystem is an introspective educational experience that ties into communication strategies and methods used by professionals everywhere to improve and increase confidence during public speaking.

Advisor

Debera Johnson

Role

Design Research

Graphic Design

Year

2021

Outcome

Digital App and ecosystem

Branding and Logo Design

Research

The National Institute of mental health reports that around 73% of the world’s population suffers from some form of Glossophobia (the fear of public speaking). It is commonly characterized by the urge to get away, a rapid heart rate, trembling of the limbs, etc. Through interviews and questionnaires it was found that:

More that more than 65% of individuals feel that they would do much better during public speaking, if they rehearsed it with someone beforehand
They felt that the other person would help them improve in certain areas, maybe fix their pronunciations and even tell them where they are going wrong
Yet over 90% of them did not ask anyone for help before an important presentation

The objective of this solution would be to allow users to rehearse, learn and improve their public speeches.

Conceptualization

The initial ideas were centered around communication between people and the devices used speech input to map colors in order to visualize the amount of time someone had spoken for. This was an attempt to facilitate equal communication in couples and larger groups.

But based off recurrent public speaking theories, it was found that in addition to the contents on one's speech, the tonality of voice and changes in body language play a pivotal part in how that speech is received. Hence, these non-verbal cues laid the groundwork of a more personalized design outcome in the form of an Artificial Intelligence guided app.

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Outcome

Oratory is an app based conditioning experience that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to help the user better their public speaking skills. It provides the user with:

A learning experience that grows with them
The ability to make incremental changes
Positive reinforcement and suggestions

Future steps would include accommodation for autogenic training, pre and intra public speaking techniques to calm and de-stress the body, including Oratory in education systems and adding personalized support from speech therapists and body language trainers

Prototype

The user journey was broken down into key stages and through wireframes the Oratory app was developed with a focus on feedback loops and clarity. The app features:

A guided recording experience
A analysis broken down into body movement and speech patterns
Sharing your recording with trusted contacts

Through explorations and revisions, a logo was chosen that depicts the user's holistic journey in public speaking. The color blue was chosen to evoke a sense of trust and reliability in today's age of surveillance, with the orange as a pop of color to bring some energy into the experience.

Details

Harnessing existing technologies and through an initial wireframe, the key screens and feedbacks loops were developed into a mobile app based experience. The system would include:

Using a smartphone's camera and microphone
Cloud-based analysis of body movements
Natural Language Processors to transcribe speech-to-text
Breakdown and suggestions driven by an AI assistant

This system can also bleed over onto other devices, wherein when cast to a TV screen, a live virtual audience will provide instantaneous feedback. The audience engagement meter will provide the user with a visual representation of how well they are connecting with the viewers while using deep fakes, mimicking real-life scenarios.