Science Central: College-apps & canvas for science

2023 - present

Full platform desktop design • Concept design • Usability testing

Role

In-House Product Designer

  • Created design system, prototypes

  • Conducted Figma prototype testing

  • Communicate directly with Cheif Data Officer, PMs, and engineers

Social impact

Advanced environmental molecular science discovery in the United States

Team

1 Project Manager

2 Designers & Researchers

15+ Software Engineers (Backend & Frontend)

Prototype solution (built by me)

UX impact through end users' voices

"much better organized"

"way better than emailing back and forth"

The mission was clear, how might we …

make it easier for world-class scientists to access data and share their research insights?

"Part of my samples were lost... so we have to discard that part of the experiment..."

What was blocking world-class scientists from accessing and sharing experimental data?

Lack of streamlined support

Internal chains of communication

Conflict in product ownership

What is my responsiblity

Create an all-in-one platform for internal team and external scientists

For each external module design, we design service for the internal team as well (Students vs. professors)

Technical challenges

Dual-audience experiences

Weaved multi-stakeholder user flows

Design for concepts and practical

How I lead the team to success in solving the right problems

For each module design, I led 3+ co-design workshops for both sides of the user groups

With detail-oriented workshops, I lead the team to prepare every session carefully and filled with punctual questions

Discover: User flows

Through workshops, I aligned the user flows from the external and internal audience so we can identify the emotional lows and interaction frictions.

Define: Feature prioritization

Design requirements became much more complex with multiple stakeholders to serve in the module. I guided the design team in organizing features around stakeholder needs, empowering each designer to take ownership of a specific feature or stakeholder group.

Divide and conquer in ideation (my ideation)

Design: Consistency & Reduce politics

The team didn’t have a design system, so I created one using Figma variables, unlocking dark and light mode design in one.

This approach saved us time when brand color politics arose, allowing me to update the primary color across all designs in minutes.

Validate: Prototyping testing

With an attitude toward discovering, I built prototypes to test with end users.

I conducted usability testing to validate our design, helping us refine interactions and ensure that our solution effectively addressed the pain points.

Sample shipment: Design challenge 1

People forget to share tracking numbers when mailing experiment samples

Our solution

We created 24hr, 48hr, and 72hr emails and in-app reminders after approval to ship

Sample shipment: Design challenge 2

Lab identifiers often gone missing

Our solution

Graphic reminder to record specific lab identifier numbers, preventing packages from getting lost upon arrival at our organization.

Sample shipment: Design challenge 3

144 attributes to fill out in metadata recording

Our solution

Convert 144 Excel columns into a categorized searchable panel to locate attributes easily and quickly attribute loca.

What I learned from my design team

Non-violent communication

I realized that being technically skilled alone doesn’t guarantee excellent execution of a user experience product. Reflecting on my communication methods, I had a significant 'aha' moment when I adopted a more collaborative approach with the team, using nonviolent communication. This change allowed me to address problems with a much calmer, more constructive mindset.