During the Minor 'Exclusive Design', together with a group I came up with the concept 'Kiosk Scanner'. The idea is that people with a visual disability can do small groceries independently. You can type in what you want to buy at the supermarket. The app will build an effecient route and direct the person to the right products. Holding the camera out on the shelves, the app will show the user where they can find the product they're looking for.
We made use of the fact that this person can still see a little bit. This makes it possible for them to follow a visible route on their phone existing of circles. Some points we have paid extra attention on during this project were:
- Accessability (main focus on screenreaders and high contrast)
- Humor
- Identity
We designed this concept together with one person, let's name her Julie. Julie can see 0,3%. She can see and distinguish colors and her vision is blurry. Julie experiences problems when she wants to do some spontaneous groceries. As she cannot see where the products are that she want to buy, she needs help from an employee. In most supermarkets, this is not a problem. But when she is at small supermarkets, the employee is usually busy or not able to get out from behind the counter.
So we designed our concept with the Kiosk in mind. This is a small supermarket to-go located in several NS train stations around the Netherlands. The Kiosk was an essential place to Julie, as she has to use public transport to travel around the country.
For this concept to be realised, we thought of putting maps of the Kiosks in the backend of this app. In combination with a database of their products, the app should be able to work properly. Because this was a school project, we only came as far as this prototype. But I think if this app could be realised, it could make an immense difference in a lot of peoples lives, as they would become more independent, giving them more confidence in life, and more joy in doing groceries.
For the sake of this project, the concept is designed exclusively for Julie, using her favorite colors and humor and designing contrasts that are most useful to her. Essentially, it could be designer for and used by people with little to no visual disability. Because let's be honest, finding products in the supermarket isn't always a hoot.
You can access the prototype right here. Make sure you watch it on a mobile device, as it was not designed to be displayed and used on a desktop device. If you have no visual disability, make some time to test it with your eyes (almost) closed, and the screenreader on your phone turned on to fully experience the app in the way it was designed.