Locum AB

A Vinnova pilot project with Locum to explore possibilities of an accessible application supporting indoor wayfinding within complex environments, such as a hospital. The primary purpose was to investigate how an indoor wayfinding application can be designed to be accessible, with all users in mind, to fill the gap in the existing research regarding this subject. The outcome of this project resulted in nine guidelines for how to design an indoor navigation application with a universal design approach.
2020-2021
My role: User research, UX/UI design

RESEARCH

A pre-study was conducted to research previous literature on the subject of indoor navigation, accessibility, and universal design. The application explored key factors and solutions to support indoor navigation. The conducted usability tests involved both remote asynchronous and synchronous usability testing online, and synchronous usability testing on smartphones. This project aimed to answer the question:

"What design solutions are important to consider when designing a universal accessible application for indoor wayfinding?"

ACCESSIBILITY

The project was highly focused on accessibility and WCAG requirements. Throughout the project, it was important to always collaborate with the users to make sure the application was developing in the right direction. A focus group including users with various disabilities was involved in several co-designing sessions, and multiple usability tests were performed in each iteration.

RESULTS

The outcome resulted in nine guidelines for how to design an accessible indoor navigation application with a universal design approach. The process of the work shows that if the nine guidelines stated below are being followed when designing an indoor navigation application it will of high probability increase both the accessibility and success in wayfinding within a complex environment.
GL 1 Design with standard solutions and consistency
GL 2 Design for interactions that create a natural flow for the user
GL 3 Have a logical structure and implement navigation buttons on all pages
GL 4 Provide a detailed map with marked POI:s with the possibility to customise
GL 5 Use detailed guided descriptions for the navigation instructions
GL 6 Use icons with universal recognition and provide the complementary text if necessary
GL 7 Include a search function to be visible at all times
GL 8 Support for the use of accessibility tools to include all users
GL 9 Provide the ability for users to know their location with live positioning