Software UI for medical laboratories

Process reliability and efficiency in an award-winning, scalable design

A software UI that helps prevent human error in the lab

The Tecan MAPlinx™ software UI supports laboratory personnel with improved user guidance to avoid critical human errors. The intuitive design uses familiar interaction patterns, minimizing staff training time. Each step is highlighted to the user, helping them better plan their next tasks. The user interface is used for OEM purposes and can be customized to match customer branding.

Tecan Group Ltd.

Provider of automated laboratory solutions for clinical diagnostics and life sciences.

UX Research

UX Design

UI Design

Prototyping

Award-winning collaboration – iF Design Award & Industrial UX Award

Our collaboration with Tecan is a special story. The project fell entirely within the Corona pandemic, so we never saw our Tecan partners in person – and there were no face-to-face meetings within the team either. Thanks to agile management and Scrum, all disciplines were still able to collaborate efficiently.

The collaboration was awarded the iF DESIGN AWARD in the Product UX category and the Industrial UX Award, and was also nominated for the UX Design Award.

The project and its challenges

The three biggest challenges facing clinical diagnostic laboratories are the quality of test results, time to results, and human resources. We designed and optimized the MAPlinx™ software UI to address these challenges and support laboratories and lab technicians in their daily work with automated lab instruments. The intuitive and human-centered design guides instrument operators in clinical laboratories through the entire testing process.

Quality of test results: safety by design

Providing accurate test results can be a matter of life and death for patients, making high-quality and reliable testing essential for clinical laboratories. Replacing manual processing steps with automated laboratory instrumentation helps ensure fewer mistakes, especially with high workloads.

Using real-life animations, the MAPlinx™ UI assists operators in the correct execution of each step, enhancing process safety. Immediate feedback after every command builds trust and shows that everything is on track – users always remain in complete control.

Time to results: increased operational efficiency

Unnecessary delays in providing results can have a big impact on patient care, so clinical labs have to ensure quick turnaround times. Automated laboratory systems are vital to help modern clinical laboratories meet their workload and turnaround time demands efficiently.

The MAPlinx™ UI screen displays the machine's progress so users can easily see remotely what step it's performing and how much time it needs. 3D videos show which step is currently running and when results are ready – giving lab technicians better planning security.

Human resources: familiar interaction patterns

Clinical laboratories face an ever-growing demand for diagnostic testing. Automated laboratory systems help increase testing capacity – but to keep up, automation systems need to stay user-friendly and scalable.

The clean and simple design of the MAPlinx™ UI allows new staff to quickly learn the automation systems without extensive training. Inspired by current mobile apps, the interface uses familiar elements and interaction sequences to build trust and help avoid unnecessary errors.

Scalable style guide for different brands

We put special focus on scalable design so the UI can easily be used for OEM purposes and adapted to customer branding. We tested this across 10 different brands, resulting in a comprehensive style guide that laid the foundation for further design systems – the design has already been scaled to other projects.

Our collaboration: remote and award-winning

Our collaboration with Tecan is a special story. The project fell entirely within the Corona pandemic. We never met our Tecan partners in person, before or during the project, and there were no face-to-face meetings within the team either. The entire project was managed and carried out completely location-independently. Thanks to agile management and Scrum, all disciplines were considered in project management and could work together efficiently.

Our collaboration was honored with the iF DESIGN AWARD in the Product UX category and the Industrial UX Award, and was also nominated for the UX Design Award.