ScanAccess

Project

Quick Links

ScanAccess is an app designed to allow you to scan your access card with your mobile phone, save the card details, and allow you to use the card to “tap & authenticate” at entry points or gates. It also allows you to share this authentication with guests as well while also allowing you to track the activities on the access cards.

Problem

Addressing the efficient way of accessing one’s buildings with or without one’s physical access / key cards.

The problem at hand revolves around the inadequacy of current access card designs in addressing various challenges, including memory loss and card misplacement. The lack of a comprehensive framework that considers diverse user abilities, disabilities, and technological proficiencies hinders the effectiveness of access card applications. Furthermore, the existing research on inclusive design often lacks specificity in addressing the unique requirements of access card systems.

ScanAccess is designed for entry into buildings or secure environments, represent a pivotal convergence of design thinking to address multifaceted challenges, including memory loss and card misplacement.

Same problem, different communities

When one forgets, misplaced or lost one’s access cards, the next thing would be to speak to the institution or facility representative, or a security officer or the receptionist. As simple as that might seem, for someone with dyslexia, it could be complicated because the problems associated with their impairment often affect their confidence level, which makes them insecure and relatively have low-self esteem (Sharbini et al., 2015).

Goals

To bridge the gap between the physical and digital world using access cards which can serve both worlds.

Over the past two decades, the infusion of mobile phones and smaller screens worldwide has prompted a re-evaluation of tools bridging both dimensions, such as the access card—manifested in both physical and digital formats.

Evaluative research insights

Even though, I was able to have a clear understanding of what needs to be done, it was crucial to look into what have done in the security industry by looking into secondary research. What have been researched and why it works and why it does not.

Insight 1

Insight 2

Dyslexia: A Unique Challenge in User Experience Design

Insight 3

Competitor analysis

Understanding the market

From the competitor analysis; one of the main companies that have invested some much on accessibility is Apple Inc, and they have also develop an app called Wallet, which serves as a card carrier. The wallet helps save all digital cards, and could easily be used, especially when added to the side-buton shortcut.

Even though, the Wallet app also help save access cards for buildings and institutions, its downside is that for a student or staff working for a company or institution to be able to save access cards on the Wallet app, there must be another company that must be authenticate by the institution or company, before such can be done. This does not only make the whole process annoying any ineffective but makes it complex for a user with many access cards. One out of five does not solve the problem of ambiguity.

Personas & Scenarios

Understanding the users

Profile 1

Personas with cognitive impairment.

Jason is 27 years old, single with no kids and a gallery artist. He works from home but occasionally runs his studio business in a year whenever he is exhibiting. His works are based around civil rights issues. He needs simple instructions and runs a gallery with high-tech facilities. As part of his creativity, he has been diagnosed with ADHD and frequently feels overwhelmed and loses track of time. He currently uses his mobile phone to keep track of his activities. Despite his impairment, Jason is determined to live an active and fulfilling life.

Profile 2

Profile 3

Profile 4

Solution 1

Inclusive design for physical impairment

Gideon is 27 years old. He recently moved to the United Kingdom to pursue his master’s program in user experience design at BCU. He works part-time as a bar staff during his weekends. He has been diagnosed with mid-level carpel-tunnel syndrome; he feels pain in his palm after many hours of working on his PC. For him, it is essential that ScanAccess reduces the stress on his palm.

Every action button of the app has been designed in such a way that it reduces the stress on Gideon’s fingers. The button size is 52 pixels in height, which is in line with WCAG.

The onboarding process and steps were marked out in such a way that Gideon is aware of how many steps it will take to complete a task and if it any point, he wants to take a break, he can use the “skip” ahead.

The ability to add his access cards to the wallet shortcut also helps to reduce the amount of time Gideon spends on his phone, which reduces the stress on his hands as seen below.

When card has been added to the wallet and any other shortcut, it can be easily used with little to no stress.

The designs and labels have been put in place such that Jason does not lose his focus and even if he do, he can easily find his way. Every process has been labeled effectively, with an ability to skip ahead, and the design uses the same imagery for all successive events, which helps Jason to be more aware.

At the end of every process or decision, a confirmation is shown to the user to make final decisions like deleting cards, freezing cards, etc. Across the app, the buttons are placed consistently at the same place for good memory but most importantly, the ability to add a card to wallet shortcut will help Jason to easily access his cards when needed.

Solution 2

Inclusive design for cognitive impairment

Jason is 27 years old, has been diagnosed with ADHD and frequently feels overwhelmed and loses track of time. Due to his ability to forget things easily and lose focus, here are some of the design considerations put in place for Jason.

All pages have page titles and labels to let the user know exactly what page they are on and the “back” button is replaced with a “back arrow” icon and a page title of the previous page as shown below.

Solution 3

Inclusive design for visual impairment

Mary Yakubu, 48, divorced with 2 teenagers, musician, and professor. She plays eleven instruments, and she is a well-established professor of music. She has low-vision impairment and reads at 800% magnification. Even though most mobile phones, especially the iPhones come with magnifier features. ScanAccess allows come with the magnifier option in the settings, as well as the “Text to speech” feature as well.

Designing for Yakubu means that the pages must be designed in a logical way, from left to right and top to bottom. We provided page titles (WCAG 2.4.2), section headers (WCAG 2.4.6), consistent navigation across all screens (WCAG 3.2.3) and most importantly, all links and buttons are defined with descriptive labels that makes it easier for users to identify their purposes (WCAG 1.3.6).

For a user with severe sight impairments that cannot rely on visual communication. They require additional aid when interpreting information. Alternative (Alt) text is used to describe the appearance and function of visual elements. Descriptive text for photos, illustrations, icons, so a screenreader can read it aloud. Also, the pages have been designed to follow a linear layout format; left to right, top to bottom layout, which makes it easy for a screenreader to read aloud.

Solution 4

Inclusive design for hearing impairment

For Rosemary, who is 34 years old, a graduate student and a journalist. She has been diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. For Rosemary, the text contrast is essential. In the design, emphasis was laid on text hierarchy, contrast, and descriptive buttons.

The app settings allow Rosemary to toggle on the haptic feature that allows her to get vibration feedback when any action has been completed or new notification is coming through.

Haptic feedback allows users to receive information through the sense of touch, and this has helped people with hearing impairments to be included in design process and have access to new technologies. On the smart watch, users can get real time updates of where their access cards have been used, they can keep track and be aware in case of a breach.

This feature is also essential for people that are always around noise and a lot of people. It is important to note that for this app, there is no need to acquire new expensive gadgets that might be inaccessible to some users due to its excessive cost, users receives short vibrations from their devices as a means of notifications that allow them to know when their card has been scanned successfully, used successfully or shared, and a long vibration when there is an error. All these have been built in the smart phone devices and can be activated from the device settings or ScanAccess settings.

Apart from the use of haptic feedback, the screens are designed to be visual pleasing, most importantly by paying attention to the colors used, contrast, the grid system, and most importantly legibility of texts and purpose of links and images, such that Rosemary is aware of every action needed to be taken and these actions are easily discoverable.

Solution 5

Multi-Platform Accessibility

Nowadays, handheld devices are more widespread than desktop or laptop computers. In Tunisia, over 14 million mobile and handheld devices for 11 million citizens exist. There is a need for to design for multi-platform accessibility. For efficiency, there is need to state how ScanAccess will be used on multi-platform; for mobile and tablet devices, the full app functions can be used but for a smartwatch, the functionality is limited to card scanning at entry/exit points and notifications.

To ensure that ScanAcess is accessible on mobile devices, smartwatch, and tablet devices, a number of accessibility standards such as text presentation, colour contrast, control labelling, descriptions and page titles were considered.

Since the design was mobile-first, it helps to easily design for tablet without fear of information overload as seen below.

There was need to make sure that users can use the app no matter which orientation they preferred using their tablets with (WCAG 1.3.4). The information has been designed to be readable, consistent, and useful. In accordance with the WCAG 3.2.3 consistent navigation, repeated navigational elements on different devices should be consistent throughout all screens.

To help users comprehend and anticipate where various page elements will be on different screens, we made sure that navigation structure, labels and styling, and overall appearance is consistent across all screens and platforms (WCAG 3.2.3 consistent navigation).
Also, by providing predictable and consistent identification, (WCAG 3.2.4), we ensure that assets with the same functionality are recognised across all screens by using labels and instructions.

The Refinement

Testing With Users

By combining task-based scenarios and cognitive walkthroughs, with post-interview questions, this methodology balances the usability tests with feedbacks

Pilot Testing

The first issue was that both participants found the font of choice weird, even though they could both use the app, when asked about the font, they both said that it look irregular, as they would prefer something regular. The font was changed to Helvetica after the pilot testing, this way, the font became regular and not weird and not distracting.

The second issue is that while walking the participants through the process of how to use the card, they got lost in the introduction and became confused as to what exactly they needed to do. To eliminate this complexity the cognitive walkthrough was crafted in a better way, a story-like method was used to make everyone familiar with access cards and how to use them.

Main test

Result 1

Customizing Typography

The ability for users to select their preferred typeface from a list of two, emerged as a positive feature that most participants loved, giving them the sense of empowerment.

Participant 3 mentioned that “Having the ability to switch from Helvetica to a more dyslexic-friendly typeface shows that proper thoughts have been given to the design process”.

Participant 8 said “I love how playful the other font is (Irregular), I do not like to be serious”.

Participant 22 said “I do not think I want to change my font but knowing that I can change it if I want or need to is really nice”.

Participants mentioned that it would be nice to have more than 2 typefaces to choose from and probably a font slider to increase the space in between letters

Result 2

Screen reader

Most participants did not use the screen reader when asked why, they said they found it robotic and less humane. Some said that they would love to read the screens themselves.

This indicates the importance of providing options for more natural and probably customized voice settings. This feedback informs the need for ongoing improvements to meet diverse user requirements.

Result 3

Access card scanning clarity - Scan Card Feature

Most participants expressed that all pages are clear in their functions and purposes, as the icons and illustrations on this pages makes it easier for them, and that they could easily predict what each action button does and the page in general

Participants found clarity in the pages and this was due to the fact that most of the functionality of the pages could be carried out in more than one way. The use of icons and illustrations, self explanatory buttons, among many more features

Result 4

Security and Protecting User - History Page

All participants expressed their love for the history page and the most used word to describe the feeling that the page gives is “Ease”.

Participant 3 quoted “I love this particular page because it makes me feel safe. I can track my cards and see when an unauthorized entry is made”.

Participant 7 said “I love the history feature but does this apply only to the digital cards or does it also apply to when the physical card is been used?”.

Result 5

A Dyslexic-focused Application

Most participants especially the dyslexic group, love the idea that the application is a dyslexic-focused application and loved the features that are customisable very useful.

Participant 10 referred to the application as “Mine”, and later went ahead to say “It feels like it was designed for me”.

Participant 15 said “I love the fact that the idea is tailored towards a group of people and made inclusive for the rest of the world and not the other way around.”