Tychas is a factory-floor tool used by blue-collar workers to track production in real time.
The tool was deployed at a small-scale manufacturing unit producing ~50k industrial torches per day.
Each torch moves through five sequential checkpoints before it is dispatched to retailers or warehouses.
Lifecycle of an industrial torch on the assembly line
Discovery
Assembly lines are loud, bright, chaotic, and cognitively demanding.
What I did
Shadowed operators on the shop floor for a full day
Observed interactions across 5 production checkpoints
Conducted short, in-context interviews with blue-collar workers
Problems
There were 3 aspects where the tool fell apart.
01
No scanning feedback
Operators scanned barcodes with no immediate confirmation. Was the scan successful? Did the system register it?
02
Digital workflow didn't match physical reality
Operators already knew whether a product passed or failed. But digitally they had to scan, search in a table, click into a row, and manually update the status.
03
No error proofing
The system didn't account for real-world failures: unreadable barcodes, duplicate scans, missed scans, or invalid states between checkpoints.
Anatomy of a workflow
Mapping operators' physical and digital actions helped identify friction points.
Eventually I defined a digital workflow that mirrors how operators actually work on the line.
Reduction of these 2 steps decreased the overall time per product by 4 seconds
Usability testing
Tested an intermediate UI on the live factory floor. Found that while design met AA standards, operators still missed scan confirmations!
Why this happened?
Overhead lighting
Glare on screens
Peripheral attention during fast-paced work
Before — no feedback upon scanning
After — feedback upon scanning
Key learning
Accessibility on factory floors has to be impossible to miss, not just standards-compliant.
Scan feedback states of the intermediate UI
Final design
Each decision below reflects learnings from on-floor testing.
01
Real-time scan feedback.
Issue
Operators had no clear confirmation that a barcode scan was successful.
Goal
Make scan success or failure immediately noticeable without focused attention.
Choices
High-contrast state change, clear success/failure messaging, feedback persisted long enough to register before the next action.
02
Physical actions reflected digitally.
Issue
Operators could assess product status instantly, but the tool required delayed, multi-step updates.
Goal
Let operators complete digital actions in the same moment as their physical inspection.
Choices
Surfaced pass/fail actions directly in the primary workflow. Single repeatable loop: scan → decide → move on.
03
Defined error states for different failure types.
Issue
Real-world scanning failures weren't visible or recoverable, leading to silent errors.
Goal
Prevent unnoticed mistakes and make recovery fast without disrupting production.
Choices
Defined system states for unreadable, duplicate, and invalid scans with plain language messages.
Bonus
Also designed a KPI dashboard for line leaders to monitor throughput across checkpoints.
Impact
Operators cut click-throughs by 1.5×. Everything felt faster, lighter.
1.5×
faster task completion after redesign
↓
fewer unnoticed errors during production
...which is a precursor for production volumes to go up, and error rates to go down.
Reflection
"Blend in."
Just adding tech isn't enough. You have to ground it in the reality of the people using it. By listening, watching, and building alongside shop-floor operators, design can smooth out the rough edges and really help work flow.
