Design Thinking In Drug Discovery Informatics Whitepaper Introduction Design Thinking is a collaborative process developed at Google for rapidly and iteratively converging on a solution that best fits the needs of users. And while the process can be used to develop software it can also be used to optimise clinical trial planning, laboratory operations, laboratory design and create drug marketing websites. In this white paper, we’ll take a look at the Design Thinking process and answer some of the following questions: • What Is Design Thinking? • Who is Using Design Thinking? • What Value Can It Bring to Drug Discovery Informatics? • How Can It Be Applied to Drug Discovery Informatics? What Is Design Thinking? Design Thinking The Design Thinking process in use at Stanford’s d.School approach in-part Google, Adobe, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser because it’s so well documented, and Permanente, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche/ training videos are available on YouTube. Genentech and many other companies follow a 5-step exercise which brings Design Thinking helps us use what we together subject matter experts, UX know about our customers and business design, and development experts into a processes to design new and compelling single room to focus on solving solutions that fit their needs. The 5 steps challenging business problems. And of the process are: although there are a number of implementations of Design Thinking Empathize - Learn about your business practices, these companies have chosen process and participants to the point that you understand their priorities, biases and Prototype - Create a crude prototype problems. solution using simple tools like Keynote or PowerPoint. Define - Define the problem to be solved. Test - Have the users evaluate the Ideate - Identify as many potential prototypes and provide feedback. solutions as possible that solve the Then continue to iterate on the last two problem. Sketch what those solutions steps until you have a prototype that best might look like, and storyboard how a fits the need. At some point during these user might interact with them. iterations, you’ll transition from a Keynote/ PowerPoint prototype to code. Design Sprints One of the most common Day 1 implementations of Design Thinking is Start At The End a process called the Design Sprint. Identify the business goal(s) that you’re Similar to development sprints that trying to achieve. you see in agile software development organizations, a Design Sprint is a 5- Map day, time-boxed process for quickly Map the process. For example, if your developing and evaluating prototypes goal is to develop a more efficient that resonate with the end-user. A process to create antibodies (and the typical Design Sprint looks like this: software needed to achieve it), then your map would include the people, process steps and technologies currently in use to make that happen. event that will become the focus for This map provides a common the rest of the design sprint. reference point and vocabulary for all of the participants in the process. You Day 2 can also use this part of the exercise to Remix and improve identify the parts of the process that Identify features in existing solutions are slow, user intensive, or just plain that you like, demo them for the rest of broken. the team, and collect the best features on a whiteboard. User Interviews At this point, subject-matter experts Sketch help you flesh out the details behind Using some of the previously the steps in the process. Everyone in demonstrated features as “grist for the the meeting will be focused on taking mill”, the team members begin notes, and asking questions. sketching new solution ideas. Choosing A Design Target After mapping out the process, the team selects a single target user and Day 3 Day 4 Decide Prototype Review the sketches and select the Prototype the storyboards using solution(s) that best solve the problem. Keynote or PowerPoint. Rumble If you have multiple solutions, then the Day 5 best way to compare both of them is Evaluation to prototype them during Day 4, and Review the resulting solutions with review the results on Day 5. subject-matter experts. Storyboard Storyboard each of the solutions. Each storyboard walks the user through the business process/scientific process that you want to support. Who Is Using Design Thinking? IIn pharmaceutical companies, we additional effort into UX is that a well- have traditionally seen User designed web or mobile patient- Experience (UX) practices applied in engagement application can result in customer-facing web applications as increased patient compliance with opposed to internally developed medications, improved customer research applications. The traditional satisfaction, and increased sales, in business rationale for putting addition to simply making patients aware that new treatments for their As we’ll see later on in the article, indication exist. Taken as a whole, these UX practices are beginning to these metrics constitute measures of filter down to pharmaceutical research “customer-solution fit”. And while they organizations in some new and have a direct bearing on profitability, interesting ways. We’re translating the they also have an important bearing expectations of research communities on how the company is perceived by into applications that fit the way they both patients and potential future work. employees. How seriously do pharmaceutical Beyond web applications though, companies take UX Design? we’re now seeing UX and Design Thinking practices applied in Pharmaceutical companies take UX everything from clinical trial design to Design seriously enough that manufacturing and packaging. The companies like GSK, Novartis, Amgen, ultimate goal of these practices is to Roche, Merck and AstraZeneca all provide a more patient-centric focus. have Centers of Excellence or Communities of Practice for UX Design. In addition, these companies laboratory design, material handling/ are working together through the inventory, and lab operations. Pistoia Alliance to develop a common pre-competitive toolkit for UX design The group borrows from the Design through a program called UX for Life Thinking practices first developed at Sciences. Google Ventures and taught at Stanford’s d.School (one of the The toolkit contains processes, country’s most prestigious design templates, case studies, and best schools). practices for creating new, compelling user experiences in addition to improving the user experience in existing scientific software. Although we might use this in the context of software development, the same processes have been used by the group to solve problems in logistics, What Value Can Design Thinking Bring To Drug Discovery Informatics? In commercial software development, Fit-to-flow: How well does the the most successful applications are application fit the workflow that we often the ones in which the vendor has use? Do we need to spend time invested the time and effort to design entering data into multiple systems? an engaging user experience. That user experience transcends the Ease-of-use: how easy is it for widgets on the screen, and scientists to start using the encompasses critical success factors application? like: Reduced training time: How much Reduced cycle time: Reducing the time is required to be fully conversant amount of time required to advance a with the application? Keep in mind discovery project from target that the lab may have GLP training identification through to pre-clinical requirements for software. testing. Reduced rework: Reduce the number Fit-to-function: How well does the of times that an internally developed application fit the requirement? application must be reworked to suit the needs of the scientists. significant portion of their workflow. User satisfaction: Increase user User interface consistency: By satisfaction and decrease frustration. making the user interfaces for internal applications consistent with one- Increased bench time: Decrease the another, you can reduce training time. amount of time spent entering data, and increase the amount of time spent at the bench. The flip-side of these metrics reflect the ways in which a poorly designed Aesthetics: Studies of computer- UX can affect productivity and even human interaction have found that an retention. The applications that aesthetically pleasing user interface scientists use every day are often seen can reduce workplace stress. as a reflection of how seriously the Sometimes the user experience can be company values science and scientists. so compelling that scientists are A poorly designed user experience willing to overlook the fact that the can result in duplicate work, extensive application doesn’t actually cover a manual entry work, and/or manual transformation of data from one form • They expect to be able to use it on a to another in order to get the data into range of devices (known as another system. responsive design). The 1990’s Called And They Want • They expect it to be performant. Their UI Back. They want to interact with it without having to go through multiple page • Millennials have certain loads. expectations about the software they use, based in part on the social • They expect it to notify them when a media and mobile applications they lab process has completed (a robot use every day. has finished replating samples, or a sequencer has finished its run). • They expect it to be easy to use. • They expect to be able to interact • They expect it to be as familiar to with the system while wearing them as the other mobile personal-protective equipment such applications they use. as goggles and gloves. How Can It Be Applied To Drug Discovery Informatics? Once you’ve been through the Design Design Guides Thinking workshops, the next step is to convert the ideas map and prototypes If you’re Google, you create the into functioning software. How do you Material Design Guide to help cover that last mile and translate a developers solve these common paper or PowerPoint prototype problems.