The Project
We were initially looking at this project as an opportunity to do a complete redesign of the GUI used on the Vitros analyzers so began by breaking down the functionality and user workflow and determining which pages needed the biggest refresh and what new features we would like to implement. One of the biggest features we wanted to introduce was a task scheduler that allowed users to easily keep track of and remind them of when a maintenance task was due. We wanted to keep the overall functionality and workflow very similar to avoid alarming users and hoped to gradually introduce new updates that would take the GUI to a completely different, refreshed, and easy to use workflow.
Unfortunately, after we began coming up with concepts for the redesign, we were met with pushback regarding the expense of the retraining that would be necessary for users because they are currently brought in for a week long training event where they learn the details of operating the GUI and the analyzers themselves. Due to a mandatory update project the software team was working on, they were moving to a new platform which was our opportunity to introduce at least a reskin so we began working on that project in tandem.
Styling
We wanted to unify our brand's software so we opted to go for a design style à la Google Material Design, as had been used in a project earlier that year, so I began by building out one of the more complex screens in several different style options that we narrowed down and put up to a vote with the rest of the User Experience team.
Clean up and Expand
After we determined that we would go with the black top bar option, I went back to the drawing board and tried to clean it up a bit to make it feel less grey and even brighter. We were trying to introduce extremely minor adjustments that wouldn't necessarily be a redesign but would help to make the screens clearer to the usr.
Unfortunately, the further we got into the process, the more pushback we got until we were asked to make a pretty exact pixel for pixel reskin of the old version but with just a refresh of the colors, icons, fonts, and shapes.
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Formative Study
We fleshed out a task for users to perform in a formative study using JustInMind and brought it in front of real customers who were in Rochester for analyzer training. We asked them to login using our proposed new cybersecurity feature, program a sample, view the results, and then go through the rest of the pages.
We asked them for feedback and comments as they went and at the end they were asked to divide 100 points between the two versions (old and new) and then to come up with three words for the current version of the analyzer and three words for the proposed new version of the analyzer so we could compare them and use it as a selling point to push for it to happen.
Although a majority of our participants much preferred the new version, we got some very useful feedback and suggestions and we did have a few people who still preferred the old version. Most of our users are middle aged or older and have been using this GUI since its introduction 20 years ago, so we wonder if change itself was a key factor in why they preferred the older version.
Moving Forward
We have begun work on a comprehensive style guide to pass to the developers and a comprehensive icon design guide that will allow new icons to be designed in accordance with our styles if new options or buttons are introduced in the future.
We will be making adjustments to the design as per our formative testing comments and then bring it in front of users again. We are currently trying to get a confirmed buy in to the project and are a little up in the air until the software team determines which developer they will choose to re-platform the system and the business determines that the minor costs that would go into a reskin like we are proposing are worth it in the business case.