The case study describes how goal-directed design best practices were used to develop a laboratory information management system (LIMS) web-accessed, role-based user interface (UI) for next-generation sequencing (NGS) that met business, technology, and scientific user goals.

1.
CASE STUDY
© 2015 BRUCE PHARR | SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGYMARKETING
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Goal-Directed User
Interface Design

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“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

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PRODUCT DESIGN | LAB SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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)

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LABORATORY SCIENTIST USER INTERFACE
SAMPLE STATUS DASHBOARD (FIRST LEVEL)

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

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PRODUCT TEAM | STRUCTURE & PROCESS

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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?

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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?

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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

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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.