Short Explanation

KLIO is an app that helps deaf patients communicate with doctors at healthcare facilities. About 60% of diagnoses come from direct conversations with patients, and 21% of disabled people in Indonesia are deaf.

From our interviews with 6 deaf people and 3 medical staff, we found that communication works better when there's a sign language interpreter or a family member who can help. But these aren't always available.

KLIO bridges this gap. In the app, deaf patients can chat with doctors and see BISINDO sign language animations showing what the doctor is saying. The app also explains medical terms to make things clearer.

Project Goals

KLIO aims to help deaf patients and doctors communicate more easily in healthcare settings. This app has several functionalities which are:

• Authentication using Apple ID
• Chat room between doctor and deaf friends
• BISINDO animation in chat for deaf friends
• Medical vocabulary explanations for deaf friends
• Text-to-speech input chat for doctor

Framework & Dependencies

• Texture iOS Framework
• UIKit Framework
• CryptoKit
• MessageKit
• Firebase Authentication (Apple ID, Conventional Email Password, Anonymous)
• Realtime Database Firebase Service
• Storage Firebase Service
• Github Action for CI/CD

Lesson Learned

I was the lead engineer for KLIO. I learned a lot, from using the CBL method to solve problems, to doing agile development with JIRA.

On the design side, I learned from Nabilla and Andrea about iOS UI/UX design following HIG rules and user-oriented design. Technically, I learned texture framework, firebase, iOS animations, and encryption for chat and auth.

What challenges did we encounter? How did we respond?

For about 4 months, we worked on solving communication difficulties between deaf patients and doctors. Initially, we planned one app for both users, but after feedback, we split it into two separate apps.

We also ran into UI bugs in Texture UIKit where the simulator looked different from real devices. We fixed these by debugging each issue one by one.

Appreciation Section

Before closing this article, I would like to thank all members of the KLIO team namely Nabilla, Andrea, Ilham, Alco, and Daniel who have worked with me for 4 months to make KLIO. I hope we can continue this collaboration to build KLIO so that we can continue to help deaf friends and doctors to communicate with each other.