Yan · Draft 01
A post about designing software around frontline workers, using voice to reduce paperwork and surface useful information for managers.
Most software is designed for people sitting at desks.
For most of computing's history, software has been built around screens and keyboards.
But frontline workers don't work that way.
At Movable, we're always trying to look one layer above the technology itself.
The first-order effect is simple: frontline workers can complete the paperwork they already have to do by speaking, rather than stopping to type into a screen.
The second-order effect is more interesting. Managers can finally get useful information from the frontline, because the information is no longer trapped behind a reporting workflow that was never designed for the people doing the work.
A security guard, pest-control worker or elevator engineer may have very different jobs, but they share some common challenges: they work remotely, often doing physical work, and none of them chose the job because they enjoy writing long, professional reports.
Voice can let them speak naturally, in the language they're most comfortable with, and produce a professional report in English without stopping to wrestle with a screen.
For decades, people have had to adapt their work to the way software works.
Voice gives us a chance to do the opposite: build software around the way people already work.
