Chemical risk assessment for SMEs
Helping French SMEs evaluate chemical risks independently, through scientific UX design
Project
End-to-end product design
Team
PM, CPO, Devs, Toxicologists
Timeframe
Jan 2024 - Oct 2025
The problem
In France, 30% of companies are legally required to assess their chemical risk.
Yet, only 3% of them comply, despite the fact that chemical products are the second cause of occupational illness and are responsible for 1,800 cancer cases every year.
Health services — legally responsible for supporting companies — are overwhelmed.
Existing tools are either too complex, too technical, or too expensive.
Goal
Design a scientifically accurate, intuitive and autonomous product for small and medium-sized companies, enabling them to complete a chemical risk assessment without expert assistance.
Help occupational health services: identify high-risk companies faster, reduce support time and provide better and more timely follow-up
Challenges
Complex scientific model (INRS method) to translate into UX
Target audience ranged from toxicologists to HR generalists
Balancing scientific accuracy with simplicity
My role
Participated to the product definition & prioritization with PM & CPO
Ran benchmarks, extracted insights from existing tools
Designed each flow
Worked closely with devs to ensure feasibility and timelines
Participated in 3 beta testing phases alongside occupational health services and toxicologist
Led multiple user interviews and usability tests with small and medium-sized companies to validate the product in real-world contexts
Results
MVP validated by toxicologists and non-specialist users
FDS parser reduced manual input by ~70% during inventory
1 health service (representing 4,000 companies) confirmed adoption
Final product ready for launch in Q1 2026
The process
Goal: Enable companies of all sizes to quickly associate chemical risks with the right groups of employees, without requiring safety expertise.
Initial observations & research:
Large companies needed detailed structures, while smaller ones needed simplicity
Starting from a blank page felt unnecessary and time-consuming
Key decisions:
Allowed users to reuse existing company structures from other parts of the application.
Designed a 2-level grouping system adaptable to company size
Introduced filters and bulk actions to simplify employee assignment
User insights:
Avg. NPS: 4.3 / 5 (6 users)
Recurrent feedback: “Simple and fast — Much clearer and more usable than Seirich.”
Users didn’t want to manage groups unrelated to chemical risk
Iterations and next steps :
Implemented automatic deselection of employees once assigned
Improved visual feedback and validation messages
Automatically suggest only the groups exposed to chemical risk when importing from other parts of the application
Goal: Allow non-expert users to evaluate chemical risks accurately while strictly respecting the scientific methodology.
Initial observations & research:
The evaluation step is the core and most complex part of the product
Users often lacked field-level information and often lacked confidence in their answers.
Key decisions:
Designed a guided questionnaire supported by clear wording, contextual explanations, and custom illustrations.
The system calculates risk scores based on validated toxicology models in the background.
User insights:
Avg. NPS: 3 / 5 (expected for a scientifically complex step)
Positive feedback : "The questionnaire is clear and not overwhelming.” “The illustrations really help understand what’s being asked.”
Users did not understand the results of the evaluation and needed more transparency.
Users struggled to describe concrete work situations to evaluate.
Iterations and next steps :
Built a dedicated risk score explanation feature with top 3 risk factors, top 3 best-controlled factors and a clear visual hierarchy to support understanding.
Created a task suggestion feature, tailored to the company’s sector, to help users start from concrete examples
Goal: Help companies focus on what really matters: a small, high-impact action plan that can realistically be implemented.
Initial observations & research :
Many companies already had generic action plans, but nothing specific to chemical risks.
Users expected clear guidance, not another document to fill.
Health services strongly emphasized that execution matters more than exhaustiveness.
Key design decisions:
Designed a Prevention Assistant as the core of the experience
Automatically ranked risks by severity
Displayed only the top 3 most critical risks by default
Generated highly specific prevention actions based on questionnaire answers
Structured actions following scientific prevention principles
Clearly displayed the expected impact of each action on the risk level
User testing & feedback:
Avg. NPS: 3.7 / 5
“I like seeing the impact of each action.”
The prevention assistant feature lacked visibility, and some users didn’t notice it right away.
Users expressed a need for interoperability with other tools in the application (such as the Document Unique module), or the ability to build on existing action plans created in Excel or tools like Seirich — otherwise, starting from scratch would feel like a waste of time.
Iterations & next steps
Improved visibility of the prevention assistant
focus on addressing users’ need for interoperability with existing tools and action plans.
