BACKGROUND

EZ Ship (Accessioning) is the first point of contact in the pipeline for sample processing. The web application is used to manage package activity, allowing accessioners to indicate that specimens have arrived at the FMI lab for testing, indicate damaged or missing samples, and track the status of a package.

Tags: enterprise, UX, UI, visual design, IA, user research, mobile, responsive, communication, data, product design, SaaS

THE TEAM

Product Owner, Technology Lead, 3 Developers

MY ROLE + Tasks

As a senior experience designer, strategist and researcher, I devised observation activities with lab staff, conducted design concept testing and user interviews with accessioning team members, synthesized interview findings, created user journey maps, delivered research readouts to the product team, proposed design solutions, and lead goal and success definition and prioritization activities with product and development.

GOALS

The initial request from product and technology was to redesign the EZ Ship application for a new look and feel. Functionality was being expanded to include check-in for FMI intra-lab sample verification, generating reports, and surfacing data from cross dependent application LIMs and the FedEx API.

At face value, this was a broad goal and I requested to dive deeper into the application, the team, and their work.

Research Objectives

  • Understand technicians’ workflows when receiving and shipping packages - physical and screen-based

  • Identify opportunities, user pain points, exceptions to tasks

  • Solicit feedback on potential design solutions

  • Define user personas and scenarios

DELIVERABLES

  • Create journey maps to present to product and teach teams

  • Guidance on design components leveraging the existing FMI Design System, further advancing specific components to meet the needs of users (search, filters, tables)

  • Research readout of findings and insights

  • Insights-driven design recommendations

Interviews + Concept Testing

After 3-4 hours of observations in the lab and interviews with 7 team members I was able to learn:

  • roles within the lab team

  • jobs to be done

  • physical processes

  • challenges, pain points, exceptions to tasks

EZ Ship | Sub-section of a journey map, workflows

Design RECOMMENDATIONS

Dashboard with advanced tools for search, filter, and selecting various attributes allows accessioning team managers to quickly focus in on problems and generate reports

Package detail which provides a dedicated area for accessioners to complete package and specimen level tasks. Displays as much known information pulling in data from online ordering, external apps and APIs. Provided the ability to add notes and indicate damaged package or samples.