PROJECT
Visualizing genetic data in meaningful ways to speed up scientific discovery.
Role
Product Designer
Company
Benchling
Timeline
5 months
Outcome
Shipped 🚢
OVERVIEW
Over a 5-month period, I partnered with two teams to deliver interactive visualizations for genetic data, enhancing usability of complex scientific workflows.
Benchling is a platform that streamlines lab operations to enhance scientific productivity. As the design lead, I consolidated prior insights, contributed to defining the MVP functionality, and drove the design of the feature's end-to-end user experience. 🚢 This feature successfully launched in July 2024.
Scientists can easily store and find their experiment data on Benchling, but it's difficult to efficiently analyze data.
Scientists commonly use a search tool called BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) to compare DNA, RNA, or protein sequences. This tool helps scientists identify what a sequence might do, uncover relationships between organisms, or detect mutations.
However, it's hard for scientists to compare sequences on Benchling:
WHY IT MATTERS
"Benchling is great at making connections between things, but it's a missed opportunity that we can't see those connections."
- Benchling customer
Our company has excelled at helping scientists centralize their data. As we move toward empowering them to take action on that data, it's critical for us to help scientists understand and analyze their data in meaningful ways.
SOLUTION
Introducing BLAST Alignment View
IMPACT
How We Landed
41.82 %
Engagement Rate
Out of all BLAST search sessions, a total of 41.82% users meaningfully interacted with the alignment view.
4.37 % ↑
BLAST Performed
4.37% month-over-month growth for the amount of BLAST search sessions.
2.81 % ↑
Follow-up Actions
2.81% increase in follow-up actions conducted on sequences, like opening sequence metadata page or saving to worklists while in alignment view.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Challenge #1 - Driving Cross-team Alignment
Since this project involved multiple teams, in early stage of the project, I collaborated with key stakeholders - 2 product managers and 1 tech lead - to look at research insights, list out all the use cases the alignment view could support, and set up milestones to distinguish MVP and future states of this feature.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Challenge #2 - Optimizing for PC-friendly Interactions
During the design phase, I initially explored a variety of options. During concept testing sessions, I received an interesting feedback from customers: "Some of these interactions seem hard to perform on our lap computers." So, what kind of computers do scientists typically use in lab?
Realizing most of lab computers are PCs, I made further iterations to my designs optimize the experience for PC interfaces, especially minimizing horizontal scrolling. Instead of scroll bars, I decided to use more cursor-friendly patterns like tabs and zoom controls to support navigating dense information that doesn't fit on one screen.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Challenge #3 - Increasing Accessibility for Protein Sequences
When we were looking at prior research insights, there was a significant section of feedback about the accessibility issues with how we currently display protein sequences. As part of this project, I also conducted audit and revamped our existing protein sequence color schemes
That was an overview of the project. If you'd like to learn more, let's get in touch!
Made with Framer and hot tea 🍵