Client
IDBS
Date
2015-2017
Industry
Scientfic sector
Role
UX designer
Services
Ui & UX Design
IDBS produce enterprise scientific, informatics software that power R&D organisations, scientists and teams in a biologics development, drug discovery and chemistry environment. The core application E-WorkBook runs on Desktop, web, and mobile. My role was to help transition modules from the desktop application in SaaS-based application for usage on the web and mobile.
Primary role
My primary role was to take ownership of the design and user experience of Connect application, Inventory application and the Chemistry module within the Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN); assimilate confluence pages that informed developers through functional specs based on research collected by solution consultants; produce simple but effective information architecture which correlated into simple user flows; wireframe and prototype; develop the product's design system and continue supporting product management.
Initial challenges
One of the biggest challenges from a personal level was to understand the nature of intent, as well as the complexity of the industry. The industry is a closed, strict industry, that has many regulations. The majority of users are those with a chemistry background such as doctors, scientists, engineers, and lab assistants.
They have a very methodical way of thinking, and not frequently open to change. As most of the product owners are chemists themselves, understanding the way they think helped me to develop an outside perspective that was very much needed in the industry.
Testing iterations
Once the problems were identified, user journeys were created roughly, and prototypes generated for solution consultant usage. These established a base to produce higher fidelity prototypes that were tested with key members from the organisation who would use the specific software.
Refinement & success
After a few rounds of user testing and refinement, we were then able to produce function specs for the developers to build the solution as a module within the main software.
We implemented industry firsts with a new search by drawing, a type-ahead feature in procedural write-ups, an automated compliance checker to evaluate chemical usage and built a health and safety feature that was automated, background passive searching to reduce the need of recreation, all of which directly improved the speed at which a user creates experiments.