Andrew
PROBLEM
When applying UCD to sanitation, describe a problem your organization was trying to solve?
Getting good feedback from employers to improve operations
SOLUTION
What solution did you design to solve the problem?
We’re now doing the journey path every quarter in which staff draws out and discusses our entire waste processing and briquette production processes to find areas for improvement and brainstorm solutions together.
WHAT WORKED WELL
What part(s) of the UCD process did your organization do very well?
- Journey path with sticky notes
- Identifying hardest and most unsafe processes:
- hardest drying racks for briquettes
- fecal sludge buckets up a ladder was unsafe
- listening to all steps
- taking time off operations
- individual/collective work
- Probing
- Switching people’s roles for a day so that they could make recommendations for improvements
WHAT DIDN'T WORK
What part(s) of the UCD process did not go well?
Asking for general recommendations from staff without providing a framework to think about areas for improvement
TOOLS AND FRAMEWORKS
What UCD tools or analytical frameworks did you use?
- Sticky notes
- Journey maps
- Brainstorming
WHAT WAS REALLY HARD
What were your biggest struggles?
Staff struggled to see purpose at the beginning of the day
BIGGEST A-HA
What was your biggest a-ha moment?
There were steps in the journey that I and other employees were not aware of
MY PIVOTS
So then what? What did you do? Discard the idea? Change course?
Continuing to try to build a culture of empowerment—still noodling on this one
TIPS
What advice would you give other organizations?
- Empathize with users at the beginning
- Create acceptance for trying, not accuracy
- Reference deep dives more frequently
- Follow up!
- Understand the importance of involving every user in the system
