The Client
SignUp Captions provides media accessibility for the Deaf and and Hard-of-Hearing community through a free-of-charge Google Chrome extension that offers sign language interpretation on Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, and other streaming platforms.
"Vitalsphere is far from your average tech team and SignUp Captions would not be what it is without them!
When I was looking for my tech team I interviewed quite a few companies. Vitalsphere stood out for several reasons, but - above all - I value their culture. Their team displays soft skills that match the value of their technical knowledge. As well as being extremely knowledgeable and innovative, Vitalsphere is not intimidating to a non-technical person, and they explain complex issues and solutions in a digestible way.
This is an adaptive team, and they have come up with ideas way beyond their remit. Our product needs to adapt to different countries and platforms, and the Vitalsphere team has met these challenges head-on and with efficiency. Additionally, Vitalsphere has supported Signup by attending meetings and pitches. They have interacted very well with clients and impressed potential partners. They have made videos for me to share with stakeholders and provided visuals that have been invaluable in showing our growth and progress. I asked them to work alongside a branding agency who had offered Signup some work free of charge, and Vitalsphere's openness and willingness to collaborate ended in very good results, both for our Chrome extension and our website.
Vitalsphere is supportive, professional, extremely capable, patient, friendly, and kind. Working with them makes my project and my working day better!"
— Mariella Satow, Founder
The Solution
Signup Captions had been scaling to reach a larger audience and provide additional accessibility content for their users, but their extension design was cumbersome and outdated and lacked needed functionality. We redesigned and rebuilt their extension to improve UX and expand functionality, and we also revamped their website.
The Services
Supported Platforms
Chrome Extension
Previously, SignUp’s extension required the user to manually navigate to a chosen video both within the extension and within the streaming service and then sync the two. We recoded this so that the user can now launch the extension from any site, and selecting a title from the extension interface will automatically bring them to the corresponding title within the streaming service.
We added support for TV shows as well as additional streaming platforms across multiple countries. We also implemented video resizing, favoriting, filtering, multiple language support and auto-syncing.
Website
SignUp’s website was functional, but it didn’t represent what the extension had to offer, nor was it particularly inviting. We redesigned SignUp’s website to grab users’ attention and showcase extension features. We built out new sections highlighting available titles, and integrated a color scheme and images that provided a welcoming visual experience. In addition, we improved accessibility by updating the site’s contrast levels, adding in a dark mode, and optimizing the code for compatibility with site readers.
When an external branding company wanted to support SignUp’s mission by providing their services free of charge, we integrated their work into our designs and offered guidance on using their deliverables.
Website accessibility
SignUp wanted to make sure that they were providing inclusive access to their content. To support their users with low vision, we designed and implement two additional high-contrast site themes:
Additionally, we refactored the website code to maximize compatibility with site readers and ensure that users could navigate through sections by hitting the tab button, without the need to click.
We also integrated the site with Signly, a synchronous reader that offers access to web content in sign language.
Content Management System
We built SignUp a content management system that allows them to upload new titles, update corresponding images, add blog posts, and manage featured content.
Donations
Since SignUp is powered by donations, they needed a way to invite users to support their service. We designed an in-extension prompt that appears at the end of a film or TV show and guides viewers to a page of donation options, including the ability to pay for a specific movie or TV episode to be interpreted.
