Genomics Lab Sample Submission System (In Progress)

Overview

This project is to help a genomic lab solve a business problem-- the lab users are not following the required procedure to provide descriptive metadata of their samples, and the lab cannot build a genomic database from their work.  After analyzing learning needs and considering different solutions, instead of creating a whole set of courses, we decided to embed the learning experiences in the original interface of the online submission form.

Problem & Background

The ABC Bio Lab is a non-profit organization promoting open science. They hope to build a genomic database that will benefit all future researchers who reuse the data. The lab sequences users’ samples and generates genomic data for free. But in accordance with open science and database building efforts, the lab needs to collect data from their sequencing result to build their database. Therefore, when users submit sample sequencing requests, the lab needs users to follow the required procedure and provide descriptive metadata (data description). They constructed an online project submission system for that purpose.

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However, most users did not follow the required procedure to submit their sample testing requests. The data they entered is not descriptive enough. The lab assistants have to spend a considerable amount of time to email back the users or engage in one-on-one meetings to guide the users with the procedure, which strongly influences their productivities on the regular testing work. At the same time, it is time-consuming for those users who wish to get the testing results for the projects. They have a pre-existing 20+ pages of manual documents for users, but it does not effectively solve the problem. 

Process

When I approach this project, I meet the stakeholders and SMEs to understand the background and the problems. My original thought was to transfer the pre-exciting 20 pages long manual document to a quick and engaging e-learning course. This course will include polls, interactive slides, screencasting, and job-aids. The content will consist of the submission procedure, why it is essential to follow, and how to use the online submission system.

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However,  I analyzed the problems by surveying and interviewing the lab managers, scientists, assistants, and lab users. I identified a  knowledge, skill, and attitude problem from the internal and external users. The more straightforward and effective solution will be to re-create the online sample submission interface, streamline and submission procedure, and incorporate more precise and detailed instructions in the interface. 

I pitched this proposal to SMEs and stakeholders, and they love the new solution. 

The Next Steps

Currently, I am working with the lab's internal engineer, and we are in the process of designing and building the system. The lab software engineer team is building the backend of the submission system. I am rewriting the instructions in the interface and designing the user interface mockups using Adobe XD and storyline.