Life Technologies Thermal Cycler Instruments

Digital Brand Strategy • UX • UI• Embedded Touch-Screen Devices

 

 

 

 

The Product Team
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Sandro Klein: Industrial Design lead

Scott Rickes: UX lead

Sean Zimmerman: UI lead

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Voice: Courageous, energized, & inspired
Visual Tones: Alive, vibrant, & exude vitality

 

 

 

 

Overview 

Build a digital presence for scientific instruments that are iconic and easy-to-use, starting with it's PCR Thermal Cyclers.

 

The Challenge

In 2013, Life Technologies's business model was not only to create their own line of innovative scientific instruments, but to also purchase smaller companies who products they thought would complement the innovation of technology. In doing so, brand disruption became an issue. All of a sudden, their line of products looked very different from one another. In order to launch product in a quick manner, they would use the old designs, and slap their logo on it. This led to the company to come up with the idea of creating it's own internal design group, consisting of Industrial Design, UX/UI Design, and Research, with a goal of creating world class scientific instruments that live in harmony with one another. My role consisted of creating a new digital presence that would help align the interfaces across all products within the company.

 

My Approach

My particular focus, as the lead UI designer, was to come up with a new (digital) design system that contained a single look and feel, that could work for a multitude of branded instruments, across Life Technologies line of products. The goal was to create a system that not only unified a grouping of brands, but also stood out from the crowd and was memorable/iconic. The first products to showcase this look and feel would be the Applied BioSystem's family of PCR Thermal Cyclers.

 

Grid_Thermal_Cycler_Designs

 

 

Creation of an iconic trait 

A common observation in labs filled with various instruments was the inconsistency in screen layouts. How could we unify these screens despite their different work states? The answer lay in understanding the core workflow. At a high level, the workflow consisted of three main parts: Setting up a run, Performing the run, and Finishing the run. This high-level perspective led us to conceptualize a component that could represent each state: an empty state, a filled state, and then back to another empty state. This line of thinking led to the creation of the dial.

 

Average_Run
Dial_Type_Cool
Dial_Type_Warm
Dial_Type_Run_Complete
Home_Build
Home_Screen
Light_Blue_Grid3
Preparing_Dial@3x

 

 

Templates and component creation 

After a lot of research and wireframing, we were finally able to start finalizing a set if components, to be added to our library. From here, I set out to create a set of templates, to be used, along with a style guide, to help development teams emplement final code. I also took part in weekly style guide meetings with other user experience designers in the company.  Although they worked on websites and applications, it was important that they also were informed with products style guide, so we can all work in harmony. 

AB-StyleGuide
StyleGuide_Horizontal

 

 

The Final Product 

Once Life Technologies began seeing profit and net sales from the initial ProFlex PCR instrument, after launch, requests for more product began racing in. The work has been plentyfull, but the amount of positive feedback has been overwhelming. Within the course of 2-3 years, Life Technologies was bought by Thermo Fisher Scientific, where I currently work. The success of their innovatitive products can be seen and felt worldwide. It's been awfully fun to see the full family of thermal cycler products reach maturity. The video, below, puts this in full display.

 

 

 

Requested Mobile Platform

After the success of the initial instrument, itself, I was then asked to help create a mobile design system for a PCR Essentials app. This application is a tool for molecular biology researchers to find product information on Taq polymerases, dNTPs, gels and stains, RT-PCR products, cDNA products, and master mixes. There is also a handy master mix calculator to design and edit your PCR master mixes on the fly and send them via text or email. But, a key piece created was the ability to monitor your runs, remotely. This new tech allows scientists the freedom to set up runs, then leave the lab, to go about their business. This was something brand new, that had never been done before, for PCR instruments. Overall, this mobile application was a strategic advantage for the company as the life sciences industry, in general, was slow to adopt new mobile technology. In the end, it won a Gold Davey Award, which was nice.

 

Mobile_PCR_Monitoring
Mobile_Flow_GIF
Davey_Awards_Gold