The mineralogy collection at the Melbourne Museum inspired Australian designer Leah Heiss' Facett hearing aid, which aims to shift talk "from disability to desirability".
The hearing aid, designed for company Blamey Saunders Hears, has a shape similar to a jewel and comes in faintly glittering shades of silver, rose gold, black and white. The appearance is distinctive among hearing aids.

"Facett seeks to shift the stigma of hearing loss, to move these devices from disability to desirability," Heiss told Dezeen. "All too often products in the category of 'therapeutic technologies' are medical-looking, created in skin tones ? or 'disabled beige' as I refer to it."
She looked to the minerals in the Melbourne Museum to inspire a different direction for Facett. The device's colour, surface texture and form comes from this research.
"These are wearable health technologies that become part of our self-identity, sitting alongside a favourite brooch from our grandmother or a memento from childhood, to be slung onto a bedside table with jewellery and keys rather than stored discreetly in the medical cabinet," said Heiss, who won Australia's Good Design Award for the project earlier this year.
The Facett hearing aid is also distinguished by its two-part construction, which means a battery "module" in the base can be easily recharged, replaced or upgraded while keeping the "core" in use.

In what Blamey Saunders Hears says i...