Designing products for public environments means to meet specific requirements to ensure accessibility for a wide and diverse range of users.
We were asked to lead and develop the product- and interaction design of System House Solutions' next generation access control system. Their ambition was to improve the perceived quality of the product, the logic and symbol management of the UI and to develop a product that better would respond to end user/stakeholder needs.
The project members consisted of electrical and mechanical engineers, software developers, project management and product/UX/UI designers. Our part as product/UX/UI designers was to challenge existing solutions and to push the project to understand real user needs.
Designing for accessibility
From early ideation development phase, all decision making was founded in meeting the requirements from Riktlinjer för tillgänglighet, Riv Hindren, published by Myndigheten för Delaktighet, meaning it had to:
Allow for usage by person with reduced hand strength or gripping ability
Allow for the product to be reached and seen by people who have limited range, for example sitting in a wheelchair
Allow for usage by people with impaired vision and hearing
Allow for usage with one hand
To meet the specific requirements, an evaluating workshop was set up with end users with impaired visionWith the help of mock-ups, rendered images and a questionnaire we landed in two main design directions that were developed and tried out, each with two different key solutions.
Before production, several prototypes were tested, including an interactive UI prototype which gave installers and service technicians an early visualisation of a proposed way to navigate. Their feedback was used to iterate until a finalised design was set, making the programming phase more efficient.
"To prioritize early user testing has shown over and over again to save cost and time in the long run
- mårten rittfeldt, zenit founder
