Keywords

1 Introduction

Accessibility is the creation of products or services for people with disabilities and/or for multiple use contexts. The concept of accessible design is both the creation of products or services that can be used by the disabled without the need of external help, but also creating a compatibility with the technology they already use.

This project was developed in this scope, with the purpose of creating a unique and universal code that could help two specific groups of disabled people: The 2–4 % adults and 6 % children under three (Europe)Footnote 1 and 2 % adults and about 5 % children (USA)Footnote 2 that suffer from food allergies and the visually impaired. The main objective was the creation of signs that represented the 14 allergens regulated by the European Union, under the Parliament and Council (EU) Regulation nº 1169/2011. Moreover, after careful consideration, this project was based on Inclusive Design, since we wanted it to be of use to everyone, thereby overcoming possible consumer restrictions, such as blindness and/or visual acuity deficit, reduced knowledge of more technical vocabulary, or even illiteracy.

According to the World Health Organization, there are 285 million people estimated to be visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision. Furthermore, 82 % of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above.Footnote 3

In this paper we will explain how the process of creating these signs was conducted, as well as the framework that underlies it.

In Sect. 2 “Problem and Methodology” we have focused on the fact that the visually impaired struggled with the problem of not being able to identify any components in a food package, because they are not inclusive. Moreover, we will explain the methodology used in the creation of the 14 pictograms and the problems that arose from this.

In Sect. 3 “Preliminary Results” we will focus on the results obtained with the tests undertook and explain how we finally decided on a viable model for these pictograms to work for everyone that uses it.

Section 4, the Conclusion, reflects the results we obtained with the tests we undertook and the explanation of how we overcame the issues that arose.

2 Problem and Methodology

Systems are frequently designed without taking into account what is really important – the end-user.

User-Centered Design (UCD) is the process of designing a system or a tool considering the needs and expectations of the end-user, with his intervention along the development process of the end-user. Instead of requiring the user to adapt to the referred tool or system, the system is created in order to correspond to the users’ needs or existing behaviors. The result of applying User Centered Design to a system is a product that is user-friendly, potentially more inclusive, supporting the user with a better experience and helps the user in their experience with the product.

In this sense, the main purpose of this study is to aid the user who buys packages of food products identify the allergens in each food product.

Thus, our first approach to this issue implied undertaking tests with blind people in several aspects, through structured and unstructured interviews, focus-groups, and questionnaires.

Initially we set up a survey with the purpose of identifying the kind of blindness the users had, for how long had they been blind, if they had food allergies, and if they experienced difficulties identifying the presence of food allergens in the packages of the products they bought.

The group that participated in the survey consisted mainly of people with acquired blindness as an adult, caused by different diseases. However, we concluded that the majority of the participants is unable to read braille, making it almost impossible to include the information using that writing system.

In a second phase of the study, the users were presented with the 14 allergens in solid form, in order to register their tactile perception, namely at the level of the basic elements of visual communication (e.g., point; line; texture; scale) relative to each of the substances. The idea is to identify the parts (tactile identification) in order to transpose them to a visual and tactile whole, the pictogram, thus basing this study in the theory of Gestalt that states that “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.

The results of these tests differ, depending on weather the user was born blind or had acquired blindness.

The purpose of this test was to understand which tactile characteristics of each product were identified by the users, thus starting with a tactile approach.

The main purpose of this test was to gather as many tactile characteristics reported by the users as possible, and understanding which ones are repeated among themselves and which are the most relevant ones. After this, we intend to apply the reported characteristics to the relief pictograms.

In the third phase of the project, we tested 14 pictograms printed in relief, which represent the 14 allergens. These pictograms were built based on simple geometric shapes, using only five elements: the square, the circle, the triangle, lines and dots.

Following this, the 14 allergens were divided into three categories: animal origin, plant origin and chemical origin. Each geometric shape corresponds to one category. The square corresponds to the elements of animal origin, the circle corresponds to the elements of plant origin, and the triangle corresponds to the elements of chemical origin.

The lines and dots compose the inner part of each pictogram, thus identifying the allergen intended.

These pictograms were tested in several sizes: 2 cm, 1 cm and 0.5 cm.

The purpose of testing the size of the test was to understand which minimal size was perceived by the users.

The size that caused the best reaction among the users was 1 cm.

After having categorized the allergens in the three origins, we asked the users to identify which of the identified geometric shapes (circle, square, and triangle) they associated to each origin.

Similarly, we tried to understand which type of printing was most perceivable by the users. We tested two types of printing: one version with dots (very similar to braille) using the Viewplus Spotdot Embosser technology and one version with continuous printing using the Zy-Fuse technology. We had the support of the Office for Inclusion - GPI of University of Minho with the printing with the Zy-Fuse technology (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Project evolution – creation, printing, and tests

Full size image

3 Preliminary Results

In a first experience we created multiple geometric shapes, such as the circle, the ellipsis, the square, the rectangle, and the hexagon. We also created several organic shapes, such as a tree, a man, an egg, and an apple.

All of these shapes had several sizes between 2 cm and 0,5 cm and with various strokes, between 1 mm and 0,35 mm, all of them fully filled in.

We concluded that the organic shapes are too complex in order to be sensed through the tactile experience and the attempt to read them is very time-consuming.

As for the geometric shapes, the rectangle, the ellipsis and the hexagon did not work for the users. All of the participants said that they thought the ellipsis was a circle and the rectangle was a square. The hexagon did not receive any positive feedback, as none of the users had a mental image of this shape.

This was very conclusive as it made us base this project in the use of geometric shapes the least complex as possible.

The reason why we made a correspondence between the allergens and the geometric shapes was a matter of simplicity. In fact, we associate, maybe in a rather emotional way, the geometric shapes to sensations and signs. In this sense, it was normal to relate these shapes with the three divisions we created. Moreover, we also wanted to make a symbolic link between the elements. In fact, we naturally make an association between the Forbidden sign and a triangle. On the other hand, the circle is by definition the representation of Nature, the organic, which makes sense in the categorization. Finally, although the square is more the representation of precision and stability, this is an advantage for this code, because it makes it perceivable.

The tactile test caused some constraints to the participants, since they were asked to identify characteristics in allergens such as crustaceans, fish or molluscs. These allergens often caused some discomfort due to their strong odor and to their consistency.

On the other hand, we had some difficulties in presenting some of the allergens to the group. Allergens such as soy, mustard, milk or sulphite exist in many possible forms, including in a liquid state. For this reason, these four allergens were not used in the following tactile approach.

As for the tests with the relief printing, results have shown that the use of continuous printing has a more positive reaction from the users, as well as simple shapes, such us the above mentioned geometric shapes and the line.

The dots do not seem to be viable, because due to the thickness of the paper, in the final printing, they might turn into lines, thus creating a wrong pictogram or one very similar to an existing one. This situation is liable to mislead the consumer.

4 Conclusion

A pictogram code has an advantage over braille language for three main reasons. On the one hand, braille is a language that requires much space in order to be written. Also, the information in the packages has been growing to a point that there is not so much room left to insert new information. And at last, maybe the most important reason, is that most blind people, especially the ones with acquired blindness in their adulthood, are actually incapable of reading braille.

This project has the capacity of creating new codes as needed. It has a framework under which it is very simple to include any new allergen that is regulated in the future. This happens through an increasingly better system of questions that allows identifying the most important tactile characteristics for the creation of a new pictogram.

By asking the user about the shape, texture, volume and size of the solid product we are making a results-oriented approach that enables us to avoid questions that do not have a direct answer and that might lead the investigators to an error. The parameters being analyzed are rather simple and allow us the fast creation of new pictograms without the hassle of having to create a new code.

The pictograms follow the production of the products with braille. In what refers to the packaging, one of the solutions being analyzed to avoid increasing the price of production is using already existent techniques, in order to avoid to high an investment in production.

Also, this code has the potential to be used in computational contexts, following the new 3D techniques, which makes it very adaptable in the future.

At the moment, this project is focused in the 14 allergens regulated in Europe by the EC. However, the project intends to create pictograms for new allergens that might be regulated in the future, which is the case of natural latex in Brazil, mango in Thailand and royal jelly in Australia and New Zeland.