“How the heck am I supposed to use this?” You’ve most likely relied on bioinformatics software at some point in your research. And likely also felt overwhelmed or annoyed while doing so. The researchers that create these tools are sophisticated. The researchers using these tools are intelligent. So why are the tools so frustrating to use? Hint: it’s not you. Here are 7 reasons many bioinformatic tools are overly complicated:
These challenges make the creation of intuitive bioinformatic tools an uphill battle. Fortunately, bioinformaticians can access guidelines and recommendations on how to make their tools more user friendly.
Like bioinformatic tools, the BenchSci platform must meet the needs of many users and present complex data. Therefore our team makes it a priority to incorporate user-centered design into our product development. We begin projects by understanding the needs of our scientist users through interviews. We conduct usability testing on prototypes we create. We then use what we learn to iterate on the designs with the goal of creating an intuitive solution. We combine this data with analytics to help us understand where users might struggle.
Needless to say, our users are crucial to ensuring that BenchSci is a useful platform for scientists. If you’re interested in checking out some the designs we’re currently working on in our lab, reach out below.