Designing For The Visually Impaired
iris is a voice-first booking assistant paired with a high-contrast E-ink companion. It helps travelers with narrowed vision book flights independently without scanning fatigue.
Problem Statement
Julia can only see narrow regions due to glaucoma. Dense airline interfaces force exhaustive scanning, increasing eye fatigue, stress, and fear of costly mistakes.
Singapore Airlines booking flows include low-contrast labels, compact airport rows, dense calendar grids, and subtle color cues that are difficult to parse in a 15-degree visual field.
WCAG issues found: 1.4.3, 1.4.11, 2.4.6, 2.5.8, 1.4.1
Research Insights
25%
More saccadic eye movements are needed in glaucoma to piece together a visual scene, increasing effort and fatigue.
70%
Reported glare disability in glaucoma patients, where bright screens can wash out remaining vision.
40%
Reaction time can increase when processing low-contrast or complex visuals, raising cognitive load.
Improve perceivability of key information while reducing strain.
Communicate progress and options without extensive scanning.
Replace booking anxiety with confidence and error safety.
How might we recreate a booking experience for Julia, who has a narrowed field of vision, to book flights independently without extensive scanning fatigue?
Introducing iris
iris combines contextual voice guidance, persistent low-strain summaries, and deliberate interaction checkpoints to reduce cognitive friction and prevent high-cost errors.
Curates A/B choices and relevant next steps instead of reading every UI element, so Julia can decide faster with less strain.
A high-contrast E-ink summary that mirrors confirmed choices, turning fleeting voice interactions into persistent anchors.
Gives immediate orientation when Julia backtracks or edits choices, strengthening error management and trust.
A snap-on hardware control where the physical button is reserved for high-stakes actions like payment confirmation.
Future calibration mode that scales interface framing to the user's visible window, supporting long-term independence as vision narrows.
Interaction Flow
The concept animation runs as subtle background motion so this section stays focused on decision steps.
Julia says her route and dates. The system confirms and stores the summary.
ContextVoice explains trade-offs one by one: lower price vs shorter layover.
Special assistance and seat requests are repeated clearly before confirmation.
Payment only proceeds after explicit final confirmation and persistent summary review.
Outcome
Before
40+ mins
Long scanning on dense booking screens caused fatigue and fear of irreversible mistakes.
After
50% shorter
Shorter sessions by reducing saccadic stress and search overhead, with clearer checkpoints and lower uncertainty.
"We didn't just redesign a booking flow; we reclaimed a field of vision."
Team iris
Nusrah Syazana (P2440668), Shrinithi (P2407162), Jingqi (P2433817), Harur Isla (P2435950), and Myat (P2300319).
This project was developed as an accessibility design concept focused on independent travel booking for users with glaucoma.
