Project Description
UX Case Study:
Modernizing the delivery of best-in-class Diagnostic and Research assays at a biotech company.
Adaptive Biotechnologies
Introduction
Adaptive Biotechnologies, headquartered in Seattle, is upgrading its diagnostic sample Order Management System to replace a cumbersome legacy software. This initiative aims to empower customer-facing teams dedicated to managing the diagnostic assay ordering processes. These teams are pivotal in providing customer support, managing sample processing, and serving as liaisons between customers and internal departments.
However, their tasks are highly detailed, and the old software lacks essential safety checks, posing challenges as the company anticipates a significant increase in order volume in the coming year.
Background
The new Order Management System (OMS) coupled with the new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) supports both Clinical Diagnostic and Clinical Trials orders. Orders, in this case, represented incoming requests to process patient specimens through Adaptive’s immune sequencing pipelines.
The old software systems and SOPs struggled with latency, causing time sensitive efficiency loss. To further underline the pressure, the company anticipated a significant increase in order volume in the coming year. The interoperability between OMS and LIMS has significantly enhanced the system’s efficiency and responsiveness. By implementing new software solutions, Adaptive sought to streamline operations, enhance user experience, and modify SOPs to better support its expanding customer base while keeping its commitment to excellent patient care.
The UX team was asked to focus on reimagining and enhancing the Order Management System (OMS).
Image: a screenshot of the old system, from the Order List page.
Image: a screenshot of the old system, from the “alerts” functionality.
Image: a screenshot of the old system, from an example Order.
Methods
Design System Research
- We researched the philosophy and intent of the Carbon Design system:
- We pulled guidance for our own designs from Carbon’s sophisticated library of documentation and case studies.
- We became deeply familiar with the thoughtful guidelines around the 2x Grid, Navigation, Data Table uses and functions, Search patterns, componentry, and much more.
Image: a snippet of a “Moodboard” we made from the Carbon Design system in-use, to inform and inspire our choice of front-end.
User Research
- We adopted the following research approach:
- A small group of subject matter experts (SMEs) were elected to be our go-to representative for UX research.
- We held ongoing one-on-one SME interviews, brainstorming pain-points as well as collaborating on new feature ideation.
- We hosted weekly group SME meetings, where we presented low- and high-fidelity rapid prototypes, collected feedback, and directed further iteration on new designs.
Business value achievements resulting from research methods
We achieved additional “wins” by our research methods:
- The regular SME group discussions provided well-rounded representation and ultimately repaired trust between the business partners and the software team.
- We also had a few developers and data architects present in these meetings, which further served to break down silos.
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Image: slides from a Persona powerpoint that I created.
