Slides from a talk given by Francis Rowland and Niki Karamanis, at UX Cambridge 2015. The main focus was the role of the UX designer as a catalyst in building a balanced team. This was set in the context of a project that aims to integrate large quantities of complex data and provide an application that research scientists can use to aid the discovery of new medicines.

1. A UX Journey into the…
Nikiforos Karamanis
Francis Rowland
Jennifer Cham
World of Early Drug Discovery
European Bioinformatics Institute
Cambridge, UK

2. Overview
❏ Helping scientists to develop new medicines
❏ Helping our team achieve consensus
❏ Helping our team understand the users’
perspective
❏ How are we doing?
@francisrowland @technorasis

3. @francisrowland @technorasis

4. Target?
@francisrowland @technorasis

5. @francisrowland @technorasis

6. Aim:
Help R&D scientists identify the right
target!
CTTV
@francisrowland @technorasis

7. (Potential) Target
for a new drug
Disease
Scientific evidenceCTTV
@francisrowland @technorasis

8. Overview
✓ Helping scientists to develop new medicines
❏ Helping our team achieve consensus
❏ Helping our team understand the users’
perspective
❏ How are we doing?
@francisrowland @technorasis

9. @francisrowland @technorasis

10. UX Designer as a catalyst in a balanced team
www.balancedteam.org

12. Communicating
• Team grew fast
• Diverse expertise
• ‘Startup-like’ environment
What did we do?
• Agile approach
• Weekly UX meeting
Challenges
• Haven’t worked together
• Different perspectives
● Share
● Discuss
@francisrowland @technorasis

13. Co-designing
• Don’t own team
• UX woven through
What did we do?
• Include team in design process
• Help understand user needs
Challenges
• What is our role?
• What is our contribution?
● Influence
● Facilitate
@francisrowland @technorasis

14. Externalising
• Working in the same room
• Unused space in one corner
What did we do?
• Create a meeting area
• Put designs on the wall
Challenges
• Access designs and ideas
• Share ownership
● Visualize
● Review
@francisrowland @technorasis

15. Overview
✓ Helping scientists to develop new medicines
✓ Helping our team achieve consensus
✓ Communicating
✓ Co-designing
✓ Externalising
❏ Helping our team understand the user’s
perspective
❏ How are we doing?
@francisrowland @technorasis

16. @francisrowland @technorasis

17. Consolidating
• Insights from user research
• Details vs big picture
What did we do?
• Cross-check learnings
• Diagrams on the wall
● Triangulate
● Encapsulate
Challenges
• Share with team
• Drowning in documentation
@francisrowland @technorasis

18. @francisrowland @technorasis

19. Generating
• Rapid & iterative sketching
• Individual & team work
What did we do?
• Plan together with team
• Team members act as facilitators
Challenges
• Identify important questions
• Interact with actual users
● Reflect
● Participate
@francisrowland @technorasis

20. Testing
• Feedback from potential users
• Started early and kept testing
What did we do?
• Test main feature of sprint
• Team members observe and take notes
• Analyse together
Challenges
• Align with sprint objectives
• Involve team members
• Share insights ● Collaborate
● Iterate
@francisrowland @technorasis

22. Overview
✓ Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation (CTTV)
✓ Helping our team achieve consensus
✓ Helping our team understand the user’s
perspective
✓ Consolidating
✓ Generating
✓ Testing
❏ How are we doing?
@francisrowland @technorasis

23. What can we do better (UX view)
• Playing ball with Agile.
• Inviting and providing useful critique.
• Keeping track of important decisions.
• Engaging with more senior and distant
stakeholders.
@francisrowland @technorasis

24. What can we do better (team view)
• Planning
• Communication
• Specifications
• Empathy
@francisrowland @technorasis

25. Feedback from team
Achieving consensus:
✓ Communication
✓ Involvement
✓ Perspective
@francisrowland @technorasis

26. Feedback from team
Understanding users’ perspective:
✓ Participatory workshops
✓ Involvement in testing
✓ Advocacy
✓ Focus
@francisrowland @technorasis

27. I like it. I have found it straightforward to
navigate around and assume it will get
better as more links are added in!
Well done, the layout is
intuitive, it was great to see
things we had suggested in the
workshop on screen!
Powerful resource, clear links and easy to
use without training, especially for a
non-bioinformatician!
Feedback from users
@francisrowland @technorasis

28. Overview
✓ Helping scientists to develop new medicines
✓ Helping our team achieve consensus
✓ Communicating
✓ Co-designing
✓ Externalising
✓ Helping our team understand the user’s
perspective
✓ Consolidating
✓ Generating
✓ Testing
@francisrowland @technorasis

29. Many thanks to…
• Our team
• Our design and testing participants
• Xavier Watkins, Sangya Pundir, Ryo Sakai and Michele Ide-
Smith
• Bren Vaughan (our line manager)
• Ewan Birney & CTTV Leadership team
• Holly Foster for day-to-day help
Questions?
niki@ebi.ac.uk
frowland@ebi.ac.uk
jcham@ebi.ac.uk