Triton Hearing

Hearing loss is surprisingly common. Left untreated it can have a negative impact on how people live their lives. The sooner people do something about their hearing health the better. However, even when people are aware their hearing has deteriorated, many are reluctant to seek help or don’t know where to start.

For over 20 years, Triton Hearing has been New Zealand’s most trusted name in hearing healthcare, acknowledged as an innovator in their field. One of the most important goals for the Triton team is to reduce the barriers and stigma around hearing loss, by making it easy for anyone to seek help if they suspect their hearing is deteriorating.

Making it easy to test your own hearing

Triton turned to Smudge to design a custom app for their innovative Hearing Kiosk project, an iPad testing station rolled out in over 150 pharmacies and medical centres around the country.

Triton’s Hearing Kiosk provides a free, easily accessible way for people to test their hearing in their own time, without needing to book an appointment in a hearing clinic.

Following this self-screening, people can book an in-person appointment for a full diagnostic hearing test at one of Triton’s 60 clinics nationwide.

A simple, accessible app for people of all ages and technical ability

At Smudge when solving problems using technology we always seek to balance human, business and the technology needs. Therefore when designing the kiosk interface, one of our key goals was ease-of-use. We needed to consider the app would be accessed by people of different ages and varying technical abilities. So, we set out to create a simple, accessible interface with clear prompts to guide the user and a progress bar to encourage people to complete the test. We undertook user testing throughout the development to ensure we were delivering to this intention.

Another requirement was accuracy. The Triton and Smudge teams worked closely with an audiologist from the University of Canterbury to create a test that dynamically adjusts to the user’s responses; the app needed to deliver the most appropriate audio prompts to gauge the user’s level of hearing loss as accurately as possible.

All the kiosk iPads can be administered by a central management tool, enabling the Triton team to remotely update content and gather data from the devices in just a few clicks.

Triton’s Managing Director James Whittaker explains: "We were introduced to Smudge by our IT provider, and from the outset we could see the team at Smudge were keen to understand our business and what we were trying to achieve".

Over 150,000 New Zealanders have taken the test

To say this approach is working is an understatement. To date over 150,000 New Zealanders have taken the test via Triton’s Hearing Kiosks.

When Stephen, a 34-year-old father of three from Auckland, walked into the Unichem pharmacy in Takanini, little did he know it would be the start of a transformational journey.

"I was waiting for a prescription and decided to take the iPad hearing test. I was called within a week and booked in for a hearing test. I was surprised to find out that I had mild to moderate hearing loss.”

Stephen, Auckland

Stephen says: "The first time my hearing aids were turned on, I was hearing things properly for the first time in years. I had no idea how much hearing loss was affecting me. Without realising it, I had changed my life to avoid situations where I wouldn’t be able to hear. I had stopped interacting and engaging with the people around me because it wasn’t enjoyable to be in a group of people.”

The Hearing Kiosk is changing lives

The iPad Hearing Kiosk is now helping people around the world. Triton’s parent company Sonova – a global hearing healthcare company – has rolled out testing stations in a number of international markets.

Innovation is in Triton’s DNA and we look forward to continuing our partnership by helping more people take the all-important first step towards overcoming their hearing loss.

James Whittaker acknowledges: "Our app innovation is ongoing and will continue to be so to meet the ever-changing needs of the New Zealand public. It’s good to have a partner that can keep up (and ahead) with what we need.”

Put your life-changing tech into people’s hands

If you have a game changing idea for technology to help communities become healthier and happier, talk to us. We’ve extensive experience in health tech, and we’d love to help.