We all know the feeling of using a system that causes more frustration than it should. Technology-related strain has become so common that the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health even has a word for it – technostress.
Today, a large part of our work takes place in digital environments, yet the role of system design in ensuring good work ergonomics is often underestimated. At the heart of all development should always be one thing: the user’s needs.
The Finnish producer responsibility organisation Sumi decided to make user benefit its guiding principle when developing a new reporting system that will serve up to 30,000 Finnish companies – nearly all that either package their products or import packaged goods.
”System adaptability is essential so that different employees can use the technology in a way that works for them.”
Companies with producer responsibility are required to organise the waste management of the packaging they place on the market and to cover the costs of it. Reporting packaging data is a central part of this statutory responsibility.
Sumi’s Head of Information Management Anders Lundin and Project Coordinator Anne-Mari Kulju explain how the SumiOn reporting system was designed with the user’s best interest in mind.
“System adaptability is important so that different people can use the technology in a way that suits them. There are a huge number of packaging producers in Finland who either already report or will report through our system. That’s why we wanted to accommodate both the companies that prefer to stick with their familiar reporting style and those eager to try new features,” says Lundin.
“In a well-designed system, you don’t have to choose just one way of working. With SumiOn, this means users can combine the traditional and the new reporting styles.“
According to Kulju, the development of the SumiOn reporting system involved people and companies from various backgrounds to make sure the system would be genuinely user-friendly.
“We had experts deeply familiar with producer responsibility, but also participants from outside the field. This helped us gain the best possible understanding of whether the system feels intuitive to everyone.”
Sumi received valuable feedback from pilot customers about which features would make their work easier.
Based on the feedback, the system has been made highly user-friendly – and further development is already planned. Many customers have, for example, requested integration options with their own systems.
“We are building an open interface that will allow us to import data directly from a customer’s own system in the future. This way, reporting data will automatically reach the right places,” Kulju explains.
The development team wanted to address the exact pain points that make packaging reporting challenging. Many reporters have been unsure which fields to fill in and which questions are relevant for their company.
For this reason, SumiOn has been designed to be guiding: the system leads the user step by step to the correct reporting categories.
“We’ve simplified a complex process as much as possible,” says Kulju.
“We’ve removed unnecessary fields that can confuse users, and each field now includes clear instructions for completion,” Lundin adds.
If users still have questions, an AI-powered tool is available to help. It retrieves information from legislation and supervisory authorities’ texts. In more complex cases, the AI directs the user to Sumi’s experts for personal assistance.
The development team is enthusiastic about the results.
“Although the project has been demanding and the schedule tight, the atmosphere has been positive and collaboration smooth. This is going to be really good,” Kulju sums up.
Article by Judit Wikman, Netprofile Communications Agency.