Designing with Genetic Information

23andme

Overview

When designing a health report, one of the greatest challenges is balancing the need to provide personalized health information succinctly, clearly, and with empathy. Our product is personal - we deliver information that is sensitive, can be surprising or upsetting, and may affect the actions the customer takes about his or her health. Above all, the user must always be at the center of our designs. 

The final product is a Throughout the development process, I collaborated with scientists, researchers, and clinical specialists to design a product the returns comprehensible medical information about a customer's own health risk. User feedback was incorporated to guarantee that we return a product that is clear, direct and informative. The report below represents a Next Generation Sequencing report that was designed to tell a customer about his or her predisposition for serious conditions like inherited forms of cancer. 

User Workflow

Understanding the user experience is core to developing the report. From here, we can define and reference features and gaps before we develop. It is necessary to understand the emotional state of the user, map out the known steps, and identify gaps before we design features. We can test and grade the various parts of the flow to determine weaknesses. This step refines the challenge into a clear opportunity driven by user needs. 

Wireframes

Once the opportunity is identified and the core requirements are specified, I drive the process forward by developing quick sketches which illustrate the requirement. Next, I quickly iterate based on feedback, in parallel, I share with my cross-functional teammates to ensure we've achieving our team's objectives. 

User Testing

Wireframes lay the foundation for high-fidelity prototypes, which are used for user testing. Using prototypes helps distill the information down to the core concepts that need to be communicated. Integrating user feedback early, and rapidly iterating, ensure that the right information is communicated. 

User testing is also an opportunity to understand the emotional state of our user. A successful report delivers the information clearly, succinctly, and translates what is typically lab information into a simplified, consumer focused report. The information presented can be scary or alarming, and through user testing and rapid iteration, we learned how to convey the right tone and minimize the level of stress or anxiety to the user.

Hereditary Cancer Report Designs

Below is the final design. It informed the user of their hereditary risk of cancer. It provided appropriate education. This report is a groundbreaking design that may influence future forms of medical communication.