A Solution That Adapts To You.
Optimize your business with a cloud-based software that transforms budgeting, resource management, and financial forecasting – all in one place.
The Services
I led the design and research that shaped Omniphase as a product, with a focus on tech constraints, user goals, business requirements, simplicity, usability, and visual interface.
The Deliverables
Clinical Trial User Research, focus groups, interviews, and provided a style guide and a library of design assets. I also set up feedback mechanisms and a design system.
The Results
Omniphase was able to make the users happy by a staggering 80% during prototype tests. With this a lot of buzz was created and everyone was eager to try the app.
HYPOTHESIS
The justification for the clinical trial
The hypothesis is a pretty clear and simple one. The competitors were rare and all looked like excel. Excel was the main tool used for building clinical trials. Users were miserable. If we build a good user experience it will drive user engagement. It will build user loyalty and with that, I believe a successful product.
Identify Pain Points
Excel is a nightmare. How might we improve the user experience for the user?
Project Management
A major shortcoming of using Excel to manage clinical trials is its lack of project management capabilities. For example, defining and tracking study milestones, assigning risk triggers with milestone re-projections, recording the completion of activities, etc,
Manual Entry is Error Prone
Human data entry is cumbersome and error prone and while Excel has some basic data validation functionality associated with various formulas, data entry errors can still easily occur and go unnoticed. A significant amount of time can be wasted on consolidating files and checking for errors.
Unsecured Data
Who has access to the data? When? Spreadsheets have very limited permission controls when it comes to restricting access for multiple users. This lack of protection can lead to data manipulation, which compromises data integrity. Excel does not have the ability to handle role assignments.
Lack of Version Control
Who has the master copy? Where is it? Is this version compatible with my system? Spreadsheets can be difficult to locate if they are saved to several files and folders. Often times, important information is scattered and multiple copies of a document are created.
Colab & Communication
Clinical trials are routinely outsourced and conducted at sites across the world. Research has become a highly collaborative industry and it is critical that research organizations have the tools to ensure the necessary communication is taking place. Use of Excel to track clinical research can be a nightmare with communications conducted by email and phone and dozens of document versions floating around without any security.
Real-time Reporting
Using Excel to manually enter data is time-consuming and dangerous, as it can lead to input errors. Any reports that do exist have to be made manually and updated regularly – one mistake can throw off the metrics for an entire study. Capabilities not offered by Excel include flexible charts, dashboards, real-time data exploration, and capability to handle vast volumes of data and maps.
Moving Beyond Excel
In response to these issues, we set out to design an engaging prototype with the help of an expert in the field.
Moisha Platto
In addition to leadership positions at PharPoint Research and PPD, he most recently served as the Chief Commercial Officer at PRA Health Sciences. Prior to his career in a clinical development setting, Moisha gained invaluable experience as a Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch, a Structured Finance Analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann, and a legal assistant at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Focus Group
The goal of this is to understand how the participants worked on a daily basis. We want to answer our questions and validate or invalidate our assumptions with real users. From this focus group, we will gather enough insights and validate our ideas.
Questions
What does your work day look like?
What are the biggest highs about the work you do?
What are the lowest lows about the work you do?
What do you hate about your work?
How do you deal with communication while building a budget for a Clinical Trial?
What does success look like once you complete a task?
How long does it usually take to build a budget?
Participants
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Time
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Name
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Details
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|---|---|---|
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09:30 - 10:00
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Emer O’Connell
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Mother of 1. Analyst for 10 years. No time. Always busy.
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10:30 - 11:00
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Amy Murphy
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Single. Lives in the city. Self proclaimed nerd. Loves tech. Always in a rush.
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11:30 - 12:00
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Brian O’Brien
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Single. Farming is a hobby. Lives in the countryside. Math is his major.
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12:30 - 13:00
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Jason Daniel
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Loves tech. 25 years in the industry. Software engineer. Hates excel.
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13:30 - 14:00
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Cian Kelleher
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Father of 3. Lives in the city. Likes to spend his time with his family.
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All of the participants for this user research were found by Moisha. He managed to gather 20 individuals that were working in the industry as administrators and Pricing Analysts. We decided to spend two weeks and interview 3 to 5 on a daily basis.
How will we measure success?
Measure happiness level and their general willingness to explore the prototype.
What will make this fail?
A poor user experience results in terrible feedback, and users don’t want to use it.
Our riskiest assumptions?
Are our users willing to adapt to a new interface? Are they curious enough and ready for a change?
Brainstorming & Deciding
After defining our problems, goals, challenges, and scope, we started the brainstorming. Once we had come up with a list of ideas, we decided on what we’d include in our prototype.
Gathering Feedback
Lastly, we tested our prototype with real users to see whether the idea solves the problem and defines the project’s next steps. Figma was used for the prototype, with Zoom for performing moderated user testing and Dropbox paper for capturing user observations.
Participants: 20
Age range: 30 - 60
Women/Men: Both
Duration: 20 minutes
User research goals
1. Understanding the biggest problems participants face when using the application?
2. Understanding how easy or difficult participants find specific features?
3. Understanding what parts of the app participants enjoy the most?
Outcome
After performing our user testing we found out the following.
1. Struggle to adapt
Analysis of the data indicated that 20% of participants were shocked by the new interface.
2. The app is easy to use but missing functionality
The good news is the app is easy to use but they kept indicating how features are missing.
3. The app drives excitement
Omniphase created excitement which is excellent. Several participants mentioned how they “can’t wait” to start using it.
4. Human moments
They loved how it was playful because I made sure to inject some delightful human moments and moments of celebration into the experience.
User Feedback
If you could change one thing about Omniphase, what would that be?
“More visual data charts”
“See changes being made live”
“more ways to search for specific tasks”
What was the best thing about Omniphase?
“It was intuitive and easy to use”
“It was very well made”
“Can’t wait to delete excel”
What was the worst thing about Omniphase?
“figuring out how to see the unit grid. I couldn’t seem to find that.”
“I want more chart options”
“I didn’t like how vastly different it is”
Summary
At the end of our user testing, we knew that participants can use the app and do not find the amount of content overwhelming. The vast majority (over 94%) of users commented positively about its interface, layout, and design.
Around 70% of participants mentioned that they would like more features, which was scary because we already have provided above and beyond a simple MVP.
80% of participants commented about how the content offered, and functionality is fantastic. Several participants even tried exploring portions of the application that was not clickable. They were hungry for more.
What I learned
No single source of truth
Even while talking to experts and seniors in the industry I always got mixed results
Inconsistent standard
Most admins and analysts created their own work processes. They did this because it made their job easier in the short term. However, this contributed to huge inconsistencies and inefficiencies.
Make the invisible works visible
A huge portion of the design was based on assumptions which lead to a lot of experiments that were invisible to stakeholders.
Takeaway: If you’re struggling with visibility, I’d suggest to give more tangible progress and articulate them while giving updates to stakeholders.
What is the definition of done?
Due to the complexity, some tasks can end up being quite vague. Articulate the definition of done clearly to reduce uncertaininty and inefficiency.
Observe, communicate, collaborat
Yes, it is not as smooth as I would like it to be for now. But optimizing collaboration among teams is always a continuous process.
Get buy-in from others
Everyone working on a new product or service plays a role in shaping the design!