Strateos inventory
A digital window into your physical lab
Bulk container actions
Background
Strateos is a company that runs chemistry and biology experiments using fully automated robots. The company's human scientists, or "operators," are responsible for ensuring that the robots are operating properly and that any issues in the handoff process between machines are addressed.
During a visit to the company's lab in Menlo Park, CA, I discovered a major pain point in the workflow.
There were boxes and boxes of containers stacked up in the lab. When I asked the operators what these containers were for, they told me that they were meant to be discarded and removed from the inventory in the software. However, the operators said that it took them a long time to go through these boxes and manually "destroy" or dispose of them.
Problem
The manual disposal of containers is a major bottleneck in the container management workflow at Strateos.
Operators were spending a significant amount of time manually disposing of the containers, which takes them away from other tasks that are more important. In addition, the boxes of containers are taking up valuable rack space in the lab.
Some initial research
To get a better understanding of the problem at hand, I wanted to gather information from as many power users as possible. Strateos has two locations, Menlo Park and San Diego. Both operate in unique ways, but I felt gathering info on both would be useful. I began recruiting participants involved in inventory management and set up research sessions with each operator, which came out to roughly 8 in total, and asked for as much detail about the container destruction process as possible.
Next, I visited the lab again to have the operators walk me through the process in detail so I can visualize the workflow and ask questions that would be relevant to optimizing their workflow. I discovered that their barcode system was flawed.
They used barcodes that typically had duplicates and were often unused. They also were not using the barcode scanner at all when it came to inputting the container in their inventory system. They would manually input the barcode number.
Brainstorm
I gathered all the information I could from the operators and began to brainstorm. From my syncs with PMs, I knew that we needed to start using the barcode scanner to allow them to quickly scan the barcodes into the system.
However, there was no current way in the system to select a large number of containers that were scanned.
I consulted with some engineers and asked if there was a way we could do some sort of bulk action modal similar to a shopping experience where you scan your items and then take action on those items. There were some technical limitations at first, but ultimately we were able to come up with a way for it to work.
I also needed to pitch the idea to the design team and my PM to see if it was something we could even take up. After much deliberation, I was able to get the approval from all parties to begin working on some initial explorations so that I could pitch the idea to the team.
When an operator wants to destroy a container, they have 2 options: 1. Select the container directly from the inventory table as shown in this screen, then click <manage containers> CTA to open up the confirmation modal, then delete. 2. Scan a barcode on a physical container, which will then open the confirmation modal, then delete from there.
When an operator wants to destroy a container, they have 2 options: 1. Select the container directly from the inventory table as shown in this screen, then click <manage containers> CTA to open up the confirmation modal, then delete. 2. Scan a barcode on a physical container, which will then open the confirmation modal, then delete from there.
Outcomes
Because there were so many usability issues with the initial inventory dashboard release, we wanted to be sure that we tested the new designs thoroughly and include this feature to enhance container management experience.
Users were asked to complete several tasks related to creating a budget change and rate the difficulty of each task. I as facilitator also rated participants on task completion.
Across all tasks, the majority of participants successfully completed the task, and rated as somewhat or very easy
| What you’ve shown me takes away so many of my complaints.
-A customer after previewing the 1.1 changes
After much back and forth and many sprints, we were able to ship the final designs. We received high praise from our operators about how this design has optimized their workflow and felt like “the most modern experience we have in the application today”.
I would deem this project as one my favorite work because it directly added value as life improvements to our internal scientists and loved working through the ups and downs this project had to offer.
Seeing how our users interact with the application and use this bulk destruction feature on a day to day basis really made the process worth it. We optimized the operators’ workflow and cut down on much of the time they would be spending doing manual inputs and destruction.
