Accuracy and speed mattered. So did the feeling of doing the same task two thousand times. A hidden Kansai-dialect option made the workplace laugh.
01 / REPETITION HAS A MENTAL COST
Repetition has a mental cost
Specimen verification demanded accuracy, but the same confirmations repeated hour after hour can exhaust attention. A technically perfect voice can become another piece of workplace noise.
Listening beside the operators, I heard the small comments that appear only after a task has continued for a long time. Reducing errors also meant reducing that mental stiffness.
02 / SO I HID A DIALECT IN THE MENU
So I hid a dialect in the menu
As a bit of playfulness, I quietly added a Kansai-dialect voice option. Someone eventually noticed it, turned it on, and the workplace laughed.
It did not change the specimen data or weaken a single check. It changed the emotional texture of repetitive work. That, too, is part of interface design.
03 / A SYSTEM EXISTS FOR THE PEOPLE WHO USE IT
A system exists for the people who use it
The project began with the company’s priorities: first accuracy, then speed, then lower cost. It evolved into something broader—an environment where people could do careful work with less strain and even smile occasionally.
For whom do we build systems? For the people who must use them.
CHAPTER 02 · EPISODE 9 / 9 + EXTRA