Hygea — From mop to metric: making invisible work visible.

01 · The Reality

Spain’s professional cleaning industry is vast — yet behind the scenes, most of its workforce remains invisible to digital tools.
Between outdated systems, manual reporting and limited tech literacy, what should be efficiency often becomes friction.

02 · The Disconnect

Everyone wanted efficiency — but not everyone wanted transparency.

03 · Designed for Reality

Large. Bold. Hands-free.
UI for tired eyes. No typing required. Smartwatch for wet hands.

Hygea’s interface was designed to meet users where they are — in motion, in noise, and often with limited visibility.  
Our goal: make the tool invisible, and the work visible.

Leave Control
Track absences and coverage with precision.

04 · Accessibility First

Design that includes every cleaner, not just the tech-savvy ones

The challenge
In professional cleaning, many workers are over 45. Vision issues, limited digital experience, and stress from multitasking make traditional apps unusable in real environments. Accessibility wasn’t an extra — it was the foundation.

The approach
I began with contrast, clarity, and context:

• Strong colour contrast for visibility under artificial light.
• Font sizes that remain legible on both Samsung Watch and mobile.
• Simplified task feedback using haptic vibration and large tap areas for gloves.
• Minimal text, relying on icons, illustrations and confirmation tones.

Testing what ‘simple’ means
Usability reviews with cleaning supervisors revealed that what seemed “intuitive” to designers wasn’t for everyone.
After iterations, navigation became flatter, and the main task actions —Start, Pause, Finish— were brought to the watch screen itself, not hidden in menus.

Training and onboarding
Even the most inclusive design needs context.
Hygea introduced short tutorials — one minute, no voice-over, simple gestures on the real watch.
New cleaners could replay the tutorial at the start of their shift or skip it if they already knew the flow.
Supervisors would use it during onboarding so everyone could practice before the first day.
Accessibility wasn’t only about the interface; it was about confidence and independence.

Accessibility became the bridge between technology and people — a design choice that earned trust.

05 · Pilot-ready MVP

Design that de-risked implementation — even without a rollout

Scope & constraints
This project did not reach deployment. My role covered UX research, flows, and a clickable MVP to support funding. No production metrics were generated.

What we built

• A watch-first task flow (Start · Pause · Finish) with haptics and large tap areas
• One-gesture incident logging (supplies, blocked areas, safety).
  
• A simplified mobile view for setup and exceptions.
  

What we validated

• Cleaners understood the core flow on the watch faster than on mobile.
• Haptics + clear icons reduced the need for text prompts.
• Supervisors could introduce the tool with short, silent tutorials.

Open questions for a real pilot

• Multi-site roaming and offline sync.
• Client-facing reports aligned to existing contracts.
• Device management at scale (updates, loss, replacements).
• Applying AI to generate and refine cleaning routes dynamically, based on real task data, space layouts, and staff performance patterns.
  

These questions would shape the transition from a validated UX prototype to a scalable product. The next step was not only technical — it was about turning insight into operational intelligence.

This is a concept video to explain the context to the stakeholders.