Goal Directed User Interface Design Case Study

CASE STUDY

© 2015 BRUCE PHARR | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MARKETING

www.brucepharr.com

Goal-Directed User Interface Design

GOAL-DIRECTED USER INTERFACE DESIGN | 2

“Goal-Directed Design encompasses the design of

a product’s behavior, visual form, and physical

form. Its fundamental premise is that the best way

to design a successful product is to focus on

achieving goals.”

Kim Goodwin, Designing for the Digital Age


PRODUCT DESIGN | LAB SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE


GENOMIC LIMS USER ROLES*

*User roles apply to LIMS (laboratory information management system) software for all basic and translational genomic research applications, except for the Molecular Oncologist/Genetic Counselor role, which only applies to clinical diagnostics.


PROBLEMS WITH ORIGINAL USER INTERFACE (UI) A one-size-fits-all UI was too complex and presented problems for the laboratory scientist:

1. Too much information

(everything for everyone)

2. Doesn’t follow the lab

scientist’s work processes

3. Difficult to learn and use


LABORATORY SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE GOALS

Business Goal Improve a negative product characteristic to a positive one through look, feel, and functionality

that delivers a level of customer value sufficient to increase our win rate and maintain a premium

price.

Technical Goal Move from a one-size-fits-all thick client UI to a web-accessed, role-based UI.

User Goal Help lab scientists in next-generation genomics labs achieve their daily goals through a new user

interface focused on simplifying interactions and providing views that display ”all the information

needed and only the information needed” for samples and experiments.


LABORATORY SCIENTIST’S PERFORMANCE GOALS Optimize the Lab Team’s Efficiency

Spend as Little Time as Possible Recording Information • Efficiently record details of lab work—The LIMS should follow the scientist’s workflow;

not the other way around

Quickly Find Samples to Work On • Monitor lab steps for samples he or she is working on

Avoid Making Costly Mistakes

Easily Find and Return to Past Work • Quickly find work previously performed

Stay Informed of Other Work in the Lab


LABORATORY SCIENTIST UI PERFORMANCE GOALS Sample Status Dashboard

• Quickly find samples available to work on

• Return to on-going work in progress

• Guide samples through lab workflows

Configurable Sample Queues for Every Protocol Step • Organize samples that are waiting for a common lab step

• Assist in planning complex tasks (plate loading, index assignment, pooling)

User Experience Goals • Intuitive interactions that represent how the lab actually works

• Uncluttered, simplified views that only display necessary information

• Distinctive look and feel (more App like and less Windows like)


LABORATORY SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE SAMPLE STATUS DASHBOARD (FIRST LEVEL)


LABORATORY SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE INITIAL DNA SAMPLE QC DASHBOARD (SECOND LEVEL)


PRODUCT TEAM | STRUCTURE & PROCESS


GOAL-DIRECTED DESIGN PREMISE Underlying Goal-Directed

Design is the premise that

products must balance business

and development concerns with

user concerns. Begin by asking,

“What do people desire?” Then

ask, “Of the things people

desire, what will sustain a

business?” And finally ask, “Of

the things people desire that will

also sustain a business, what can

we build?” A common trap is to

focus primarily on technology

while losing sight of viability and

desirability.

What do people desire?

What can we build?

What will sustain our business?


GOAL-DIRECTED DESIGN TRAINING AND IMPLEMENTATION To implement Goal-Directed

Design in the product

organization, the lead product

manager, product definer, and

product developer for UI design

attended Interaction Design

training at Cooper U in San

Francisco, CA. In addition to

learning specific principles,

practices, and processes, each

leader learned his or her specific

role as part of a unified team

designing and developing a

product that meets business,

development, and user needs.

PRODUCT �DEFINITION�What do

people desire?

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT�

What can we build?

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT�

What will sustain our business?


PRODUCT TEAM STRUCTURE & AGILE PRACTICES AND PROCESSES Product management, product definition, and product

development (including quality assurance) were

restructured from separate units into integrated product

teams. Software Productivity Center (SPC), in Vancouver,

BC, was contracted to deliver onsite training to all product

personnel in Agile Development Practices and Scrum

Process. In the new product team structure, the product

manager serves as the Product Owner (with overall

responsibility for the project and for delivering the

product to the customer) and the development team lead

serves as ScrumMaster (to facilitate the success of the

team and help the Product Owner maximize productivity).

Agile and Scrum practices and processes were

implemented, including daily scrum, backlog grooming,

sprint planning, user stories and tasks, three-week sprints,

burn down charts, and sprint reviews and retrospectives.

PRODUCT �MANAGEMENT�

PRODUCT �DEFINITION�

PRODUCT �DEVELOPMENT�

QUALITY �ASSURANCE �


ABOUT BRUCE PHARR I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife and son. I hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains, eat good food, drink good wine, root for the SF Giants, and indulge a passion for the arts.

I serve as a strategic advisor, senior consultant, and contract corporate executive with innovative science and technology companies in life sciences, healthcare, energy storage, instrumentation, and semiconductors.

I have a track record of helping companies create competitive advantage, grow revenue and market share, and increase enterprise value. And I’ve contributed to several successful M&A events. I am a subject matter expert in basic, translational, and clinical research systems. I have led or contributed to the development of market and product requirements for biomedical, genomic, and NGS products, written thought-leader white papers, case studies, and articles for leading online and print publications, and developed and delivered presentations at major biomedical conferences.

I led implementation of goal-directed user interface design as vice president, products and marketing at GenoLogics Life Sciences Software. The role-based user interface was a key component of a whole product roadmap that enabled the company to transition from developing custom software, customer-by-customer, for early adopters to delivering whole product laboratory information management system software to early majority customers.