case study: user interface goal-directed 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 applied 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 our 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 loosing 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 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 THE AUTHOR

Bruce Pharr lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and son. He umpires little league baseball games, hikes in the Santa Cruz Mountains, eats good food, drinks good wine, reads, and indulges a passion for the arts.

As a marketing executive, he has a track record of increasing enterprise value by developing and executing successful product and marketing strategies, and by managing technological and organizational change. As Vice President, Products and Marketing at GenoLogics Life Sciences Software, he led development and execution of the product program and organizational change described herein.

He has held lead marketing positions at several private and public corporations, and he founded and led a technology marketing consulting firm, for over a decade, with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 corporations.