Omics Data Platform: Accelerating Precision Medicine with AI-Powered Analytics

A next-generation analytics and AI-powered solution for storing raw and processed omics files, executing large-scale analyses, and querying data to accelerate translation from lab research to clinical practice.

The Omics Data Platform brings together raw and processed genomic data, large-scale analysis pipelines, and AI-powered insights into a unified workspace, bridging the gap between research labs and clinical application.

Industry

Industry

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Timeline

Timeline

2022 - 2023

My Role

My Role

Lead UX Designer

Introduction

Omics data plays a crucial role in enabling precision medicine, but current workflows are fragmented and inefficient. Researchers and lab clinicians often juggle multiple tools, complex file structures, and repetitive processes just to run large-scale analyses.

The vision of this project was to unify these workflows into a single platform — decreasing sequencing costs, centralising data, and ultimately supporting personalised healthcare with better prevention, diagnosis, and therapy.

I led the design effort end-to-end, from defining the problem space and aligning stakeholders, to mentoring new designers, building prototypes, running usability studies, and handing off specifications to engineering.

Defining the problem space: Mapping challenges, customer pain points, and personas to align stakeholders around the need for a unified Omics data platform.

The Problem

Here are key pain points we found after an audit.

Omics researchers relied on multiple disconnected tools for processing and analysis, creating friction and slowing down research.

Inefficient workflows

Raw and processed files were siloed across systems, making it difficult to reproduce analytical approaches or query data reliably.

Fragmented data

Project creation was long and error-prone, often requiring cross-navigation into other systems, with no option to save progress midway.

Complex project setup

Pipelines and file stores needed more advanced configuration options, but the existing tools lacked flexibility.

Scaling challenges

Discovery & Definition

I kicked off with a UX plan reviewed by product and engineering, outlining personas, scenarios, IA, user flows, and usability studies.

Workshops helped refine use cases and surface scenarios across project creation, pipeline execution, and file storage. I visualised the offering through early diagrams, clarifying how features related and identifying deep-linking needs across services.

This gave us the foundation for a robust information architecture — one that accounted for parent-child relationships (projects, filestores, pipelines) and supported advanced needs like auditing across multiple areas.

Omics UX timeline: Establishing personas, scenarios, and information architecture through workshops and early diagrams, laying the foundation for cross-service workflows and future usability studies.

Design Execution

Information Architecture & User Flows

I designed comprehensive flows that covered CRUD operations, error states, and edge cases. This ensured we addressed both common workflows and high-stakes exceptions.

For project setup, we quickly realised a single 5-step stepper was impractical:

  • Too long to complete in one sitting

  • Backend limitations required partial saves

  • Different user roles (project managers vs configurators) required separate paths

The solution: two project creation flows — a simplified shell flow for essential data, and an advanced flow for full configuration.

Comprehensive information architecture: Mapping CRUD operations, error states, and role-based flows, ensuring both simplified project setup and advanced configuration were supported.

Wireframes, Mockups & Prototypes

I sketched low-fidelity wireframes, refined them through stakeholder design reviews, and elevated them into high-fidelity mockups aligned with the design system.

Prototypes enabled:

  • Faster feedback loops in design reviews

  • Realistic usability testing with domain experts

  • Iteration on complex flows like project creation and pipeline execution

End-to-end prototypes of project creation, pipelines, and executions: Enabling stakeholder reviews, expert usability testing, and rapid iteration on complex workflows.

Component Documentation

To streamline implementation, I built a component mapping repository detailing contextual variations across user scenarios. This became a single source of truth bridging design intent with engineering execution — reducing ambiguity and speeding development.

Component documentation detailing variations and states: A single source of truth that reduced ambiguity and accelerated design-to-engineering handoff.

Testing & Evaluation

Two rounds of usability testing with 10 domain experts validated and refined the designs:

  • Phase 1: Project creation & pipeline setup

  • Phase 2: File store management

Key refinements included:

  • Improving shell vs advanced project creation flows

  • Expanding pipeline configuration options for expert users

Results were strong: 86.5% task success rate (above the 80% benchmark) and 4.5/5 satisfaction score even before implementing the final refinements.

Usability testing with domain experts: Surfaced pain points, like difficulties accessing projects across regions, leading to refinements that boosted task success to 86.5% and satisfaction to 4.5/5.

Managing UX Debt

To avoid losing track of descoped features, I introduced a UX debt log — capturing compromises, their rationale, and severity. This ensured the team could revisit trade-offs in future sprints with full context.

Tracking UX Debt: Introduced a visual UX debt log to capture descoped features, rationale, and severity. This enabled teams to revisit trade-offs with full context in future sprints.

Mentorship & Leadership

As the project scaled, I onboarded and mentored new designers:

  • Walking them through goals, personas, and feature areas

  • Guiding them in usability testing — from note-taking to running sessions

  • Encouraging contributions while maintaining consistency across the system

This grew confidence in the team and ensured the design process could scale sustainably.

Results

  • Unified platform where researchers could store, process, and analyse omics data in reproducible ways

  • Structured and reusable data — no longer siloed, enabling faster discovery and collaboration

  • 86.5% task success rate and 4.5/5 satisfaction in usability testing with domain experts

  • Delivered end-to-end designs with specifications handed off to engineering for development

Executive summary of usability testing: Achieving 86.5% task success and 4.5/5 satisfaction, validating the unified Omics platform as usable, scalable, and ready for engineering handoff

The Omics Data Platform brings together raw and processed genomic data, large-scale analysis pipelines, and AI-powered insights into a unified workspace, bridging the gap between research labs and clinical application.

Defining the problem space: Mapping challenges, customer pain points, and personas to align stakeholders around the need for a unified Omics data platform.

Omics UX timeline: Establishing personas, scenarios, and information architecture through workshops and early diagrams, laying the foundation for cross-service workflows and future usability studies.

Comprehensive information architecture: Mapping CRUD operations, error states, and role-based flows, ensuring both simplified project setup and advanced configuration were supported.

End-to-end prototypes of project creation, pipelines, and executions: Enabling stakeholder reviews, expert usability testing, and rapid iteration on complex workflows.

Component documentation detailing variations and states: A single source of truth that reduced ambiguity and accelerated design-to-engineering handoff.

Usability testing with domain experts: Surfaced pain points, like difficulties accessing projects across regions, leading to refinements that boosted task success to 86.5% and satisfaction to 4.5/5.

Tracking UX Debt: Introduced a visual UX debt log to capture descoped features, rationale, and severity. This enabled teams to revisit trade-offs with full context in future sprints.

Executive summary of usability testing: Achieving 86.5% task success and 4.5/5 satisfaction, validating the unified Omics platform as usable, scalable, and ready for engineering handoff