Distracted and disabled: Designing our internal tools in an inclusive way
I joined the Logistics team at Kolonial.no in January, as the second designer on that team. Our logistics platform team is responsible for building the world's most efficient and customer-friendly supply chain, warehouse operations, and distribution logistics. These tools are fully tailored to our needs, without the need to rely on heavy, over-engineered off-the-shelf systems. It’s been a very interesting time to jump into both the team, the company, and not least the shaping of the design system for internal tools.
One of my favorite opportunities is being able to work very closely with our end-users — our colleagues at the warehouse. For those colleagues, the fact that we build all our internal tools ourselves also has its challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, they don’t get to choose what tools they want to use, but on the other hand, they get to directly influence how those tools are built. We get to build exactly what we need instead of trying to adapt (and fight against) an off-the-shelf tool.
Unlike end-users for most products and services, ours don’t have a choice — they have to use the tools we build for them. They can’t just stop using it, as you can easily do with many products and services in your life. That also means they have every reason to be highly motivated towards improving the tools they use. I mean, who wouldn’t love the opportunity to directly affect the tools they have to use every day at work? I’m not going to call anyone out, but I’ve had several candidates in every job I’ve had.
As opposed to most of the products I’ve designed, there are plenty of new challenges and opportunities here that I’ve never come across in previous design processes. Many of which you may never stumble across during your entire design career, and certainly not as often. Let’s have a look at some of the challenges.
Most of our end users have one or more disabilities
Okay, I realize this statement may come as a surprise, but hear me out.
Designing internal tools for Kolonial.no means you quickly realize and get constant reminders of why inclusive design matters. In many design processes, it may be hard to build empathy for a wide range of impairments. They are often considered edge cases. But, when you think about it impairments are not necessarily permanent — they can be permanent, temporary, or situational.
Take visual impairment: it could be permanent (you are blind), temporary (you have a cataract) or situational (there is poor lighting).
For us, one or more situational impairments apply to almost all of our end users during their workday:
Physical disabilities
Many work at around 0°C, those in freeze storage, at around -18°C. 🥶 Imagine working inside your fridge — or even your freezer — all day. You’ll have problems tapping on your screen, either because you’re wearing gloves, or you simply have fingers that are cold and not very nimble.
Not only is the cold a challenge for people — mobile devices and tablets don’t like it either, and don’t operate ideally. Screens can get laggy and don’t respond to touch as well as at room temperature.
Visual impairments
Lighting conditions can be poor in some areas, screens on scanner devices aren’t of the same quality as a high-end phone, and they are often viewed at odd angles when they are strapped onto your wrist. Also, in general, most people do not want to waste time reading text on their screens, so screen attention is sparse.
Hearing issues
Being surrounded by forklifts, conveyor belts, trucks and robots means there will be noise. Wearing hearing protection is not uncommon at the terminal, which means many of our workers are hard of hearing in that situation.
Language issues
Not everyone is fluent in Norwegian or English — some might not be in either of those languages. In addition, some terms and phrases are used differently by different people and can be mixed up or misunderstood.
Stress factors
Most of the time, workers will be under time pressure, and they will constantly be on the move. They’ll rarely spend more than a fraction of a second glancing at their screen to make sure everything is okay, and might be moving around while their screens are fixed in place.
An example from my first project
We were testing out interface improvements for a new tool for scanning frozen products, and I had spent quite a bit of time getting input on and tweaking how we can best phrase instructions for what to do, and making an animated illustration for what to do step by step. The instructions were clear, it shouldn’t be possible to misunderstand. Or..?
I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed when I realized during user testing on an experienced worker that neither the text nor the illustration was really read, only glanced at for a fraction of a second, as they twisted the screen strapped to their wrist at an odd angle. This person understood the task was to scan something, but didn’t take the time to check what to scan. The speed of a skilled worker is so high, that sometimes all they register is whether they get positive or negative feedback — did they scan the correct thing or not? Sometimes even that feedback is challenging to get across because of various situational impairments and the speed.
This doesn’t mean that the work we had done was a waste — there are new hires every week, and clear instructions make it easier to get reminded of how the scanning process works without having to ask your coworkers for help. The point is that there are many impairments we need to take into consideration, and that we need to adapt our designs to what is an optimal process for our end users.
Being inclusive by default
So how can we make sure we always create inclusive solutions that take into consideration all these impairments and circumstances? Well, first of all by understanding, through observing, discussing, and listening.
Spending time with our colleagues, our end users, and experiencing their work environments first-hand is crucial. It helps us get a good understanding of how the tools are used in the given contexts, as well as an understanding of challenges and situational impairments. Observing and mapping out the current situation and needs together gives us invaluable insights into improving and optimizing our tools. I’ve found it especially interesting to learn about hacks and workarounds used to complete tasks when the tools don’t live up to expectations or don’t fulfill the needs.
Making our design inclusive
Defining design principles and a visual language that is accessible will help guide how we build our user experiences. They will help us design tools that support the tasks our users complete under sometimes extreme conditions, but also tools that users love and enjoy using! We are in the early stages of setting up a design system for our internal tools, defining what principles should guide the user experience and how we approach designing and building our internal tools.
Keeping inclusivity top of mind
Being inclusive by default, and being aware of which challenges and impairments to take into account, will be essential for our design processes. With all the constant reminders we get and how essential it is to provide our users with usable, effective, and easy to use tools, inclusivity is sure to be top of mind — not just an afterthought.
How you can get started with inclusive design
I’ll leave you with three important steps that should help you in your quest for more inclusive design:
1 — Recognize exclusion
Keep reminding yourself that a disability is not necessarily a permanent personal attribute, but something we all encounter depending on the context we are in. If you look for it, I’m sure you’ll encounter situations every day where you are in some way being limited; You can only use your phone with one hand because you are carrying heavy groceries, or you can’t hear an announcement because you are wearing noise-canceling headphones. Do what you can to understand the contexts your users may be using your product in.
2 — Learn from diversity
Humans are really good at adapting, and this becomes extra apparent when experiences don’t serve their needs. To really understand how what we build is actually used and perceived, we need to spend time with our end users. Do what you can to understand the barriers people encounter, and how they cope with them.
3 — Solve for one, extend to many
Designing for a disability doesn’t only benefit those with that disability — it also benefits everyone else. It may seem limiting to have to design for those with vision impairments, but doing so will also help those who try to view the screen in direct sunlight, or in poor lighting.
