UX Process Case Study

Project Request

Design a cloud app which would enable bench scientists to move their traditional paper lab notes and protocols into a collaborative environment online.

The Project

Working name Document Evolution, this project would be realized in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Cloud as DocConnect. 

Solution

Working with data scientists and the content teams, I designed a solution for scrapbooking lab notes, protocols, and manual instructions.

1. Initial Meeting

I was invited to a team off-site where the content team was trying to figure out what would be a competitive next step for their department in the upcoming year.

Looking at what the moderators were describing, I quickly drew an idea for the app that would be Document Evolution.

2. UX Interviews & Flows

I interviewed stakeholders to understand the scope and flow of bench scientists.  Exploring how Thermo could transform lab collaboration, I “design-thinked” concepts and mapped descriptions into user flows.

3. Lo-Fi Wires

From the design-think artifacts, I drew lo-fi wires. Once core screens and states were rendered, I went back to the same stakeholders and presented them in the form of a “talk-aloud”.

4. Hi-Fi Prototype

Once we acquired internal funding, we started to plan moderated usability testing.

With revised wires in hand, I started to build out a full scale Hi-Fi prototype with pure HTML, CSS, and pure JS.

5. Usability Testing

I created testing scripts and the prototype with hand-coded HTML/ JavaScript/CSS.

From within the viewing booth during the testing, I updated the prototype in realtime to accommodate new issues and scenarios that were revealed or suggested by the users.

6. Document Delivery

In a post-mortem, I complied what we learned into wires and published them on our UX server so our development team could refer to them from a single access point.

Working with the business analyst, I made sure each page had the corresponding Jira ticket number referenced in the Axure wires (so they could use the browser find functionality to drill down to their current ticket.)

Check out a more complete version of these wires ›

1. Processes

Instead of a cookie-cutter progression of trendy tools, my process is rather simple: 

1. Ask | Listen | Observe
2. Design | Document | Prototype
3. Test
4. Revise
5. Repeat

Here are some of my favorite questions:

• How many by when?
• What is the outcome of this meeting?
• What is the outcome we will achieve?
• Whose taking notes?
• Is it tested?
• Is this opinion or fact?

When you know me, then you’ll know that I love mind maps. So, here is a link to one of my UX intake templates – which should reveal much about my process. 🙂

Enjoy!

2. Tools

I leverage these methods  to achieve outcomes,  results, and insights. 

Any combination of the following are used depending upon what the situation calls for.

Again, fluidity is important because, ultimately, we are responding to the infinite variations of reality:

1. Pencil and Paper
2. Surveys
3. Listeners
4. Meetings
5. Collaborative stakeholder sesssions
6. On-site Research
7. Think-Alouds
8. Interviews
9. Dreams 
10. Field observations
11. Effort Currency evaluations
12. Quiet / alone time to process and think
13. Split Testing
14. Moderated Testing
15. Micro Interactions
16. Typography
17. Psychology
18. Art Strategies (99% visible)
19. Design Strategies (99% invisible)
20. Listening
21. Years making beautiful things