User Experience Enhancement of a Gamified Speech Therapy Program Using the Double Diamond Design Framework

The global rise in childhood speech disorders highlights the need for accessible and engaging home-based rehabilitation tools. This study applied the Double Diamond design framework to enhance the user experience (UX) of Smart Speech, a gamified functional speech therapy program. Using heuristic evaluation, expert interviews, and benchmarking, six core UX problem areas were identified, including insufficient guidance, low personalized motivation, limited feedback, and accessibility issues. Through an iterative ideation process, 78 UX improvement concepts were generated, encompassing motivational reinforcement (e.g., praise stickers and character interaction), automated training guidance, enhanced feedback mechanisms, and error-prevention features. A usability evaluation with 20 participants, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and parents, showed significant improvements across key dimensions, with increases of 1.1 to 2.6 points on a 7-point scale. These findings demonstrate that systematic UX design can substantially improve engagement, usability, and the potential therapeutic utility of home-based speech therapy systems.