Drug prevention in large companies, Master’s thesis
An enterprise design case study suggesting the use of Eyescanner drug test and health promotion to achieve safer workplace environments.
We were two students working on this project, full time for six months. Here you’ll find a glimse of our result, which was a true team effort. Our aim throughout the project was to investigate and suggest how the Eyescanner drug test, with a complementary service offer, could be used as tools for creating a safer work environment in private sector companies.
At the time of this project, Eyescanner was a newly founded startup with the vision to develop a new solution for drug testing through scanning of pupil reactions and eye movements.
Our research questions were:
- Q1: Why and how do companies perform drug tests today?
- Q2: How can Eyescanner provide a valuable solution for achieving a safe work environment?
- Q3: How can user acceptance be achieved?
Introducing the Eyescanner test
The Eyescanner test is based on using a mobile phone, its camera and an algorithm to analyze movements in the eye. The test would be able to identify whether a person is under the influence of drugs or not.
Our survey indicated that this method is perceived as less intrusive to integrity than the method that most companies rely on - the urine test.
Identifying the needs - an iterative process
We reached out to several large companies for interviews in the initial phases. This extensive data collection gave us an holistic view of the drug related problems that can occur at a workplace.
The design process is illustrated below. It included three major iterations and a selection of different methods to extract needs continuously throughout the project.
The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by going through the material and grouping the findings based on affinity. By doing so, clusters of needs emerged. This was later used as input to a requirements list and to act as inspiration in the ideation sessions.
The needs could be connected with some of the benefits with the new technology. The illustration below shows which needs that could be targeted by a specific benefit with the Eyescanner test.
Five initial ideas
In the first iteration, five ideas of how the Eyescanner test could be used emerged, based on the needs we had identified so far. The ideas were evaluated together with the stakeholders, and the most promising ones were developed further in the next iteration (these ideas were 2, 3 and 4).
Use it as a safety barrier?
One of the most promising ideas was to use the Eyescanner test as a safety barrier, similar to an alco-lock. The test would determine if you are allowed to perform a safety critical task or not, for example driving a vehicle. This would likely be accepted, as the survey indicated that most people were positive towards taking a drug test before driving.
What about prevention?
It was clear that in the context of workplaces, drug testing alone would not solve the problems of preventing drug use. Drug testing was used by many companies to deter people from using drugs and to achieve a preventive effect, but as seen in this study, drug related issues still occurred despite the use of drug testing.
Other drug prevention interventions were not prioritized and if they were, they were not involving the majority of the employees. Therefore, the final concept is not just focusing on the drug testing process, it also consists of a health promotion app aiming to include the employees in the preventive work.
