Slice of Lime
FOUNDER & CEO
As founder and CEO of Slice of Lime, a user experience research and design agency, we worked on hundreds of projects over 15 years. I’ve selected some of my favorites below. While some are software, some hardware, and some a blend of the two, they all share a common theme; aligning business needs with user needs to create a product that solves real-world problems.
Problem to Solve
Medtronic was developing their next generation of the Stealth Station, a device found in most hospitals that has assisted surgeons in over 2.25 million surgeries for the brain and spine. A patient is scanned to acquire a 3D model of their brain or spine. The doctor can plot out a surgery ahead of time using this data. While in surgery, cameras track the instruments the surgeon is using and shows them in 3D, overlaid with the 3D scan, on two displays in the operating room. This allows a surgeon to visualize down to the millimeter where their instrument is in relation to the patient.
Medtronic’s Stealth Station user experience was incredibly cluttered and not optimized for the journey the surgeon and nurses take through the real process. Medtronic also wanted to explore modern ways of interacting with the Stealth Station, including a touch screen. This interface played a key role in what was often a life and death situation in the operating room. My team was brought in to solve this problem.
DISCOVERY
We started the project by flying in subject matter experts to Colorado, including Medtronic sales representatives that would sit in operating rooms and see in real time what works and doesn’t work with the Stealth Station when real people are using it. We had them plot out a journey map for their users (doctors and nurses). They used yellow sticky notes to mark “pain points” in the journey. From there, we were able to focus our work into a few key areas; scanning a patient, organizing & selecting 3D scans, overall navigation, and displaying only the relevant data needed during surgery.
We got clearance to be present in the operating rooms to observe surgeries for ourselves and to see, first hand, how many other devices and sounds are competing for the nurse’s and doctor’s attention.
We plotted out the existing version of the interface around the walls of our office to better visualize areas for improvement.
We even installed a Stealth Station in our own office so we could perform our own fake surgeries on patients. The object at the top of the image is a camera that tracks surgical instruments in 3D space.
Prototyping
We rapidly explored different user flows and approaches to the user interface using the large whiteboard walls in our office. Getting all of the ideas out in front of us for the whole team to see was helpful so that we could all benefit from the various ideas and approaches to a very complicated and technical tool. We began creating interactive wireframes and schedule time with partner hospitals for surgeons and nurses to give us feedback.
This screen depicts loading scans and turning scans on and off. This part of the process allows doctors to find the right combination of imagery to aid them in planning their surgery.
This screen depicts scanning the patient in real time. Nodes that are glued to the patient’s head work as reference points. A pencil-like instrument taps on the nodes and “traces” the head of the patient. This data is fed into the application in real time until the trace is complete. Think of it as a more complicated version of how you register your fingerprint on your iPhone.
We also prototyped a multi-touch interface for the Stealth Station. For the surgeon, everything must be touch (vs. using a keyboard). At a certain point in the journey, a “sterile field” is created in which touch is also not a feasible way to interact with the screen.
Going Wide
As a side project, we were also asked to think “blue sky” and look into the next five years. One thing we noticed during surgeries was doctors looking up and down to check the “distance to target” when doing a tumor resection. We prototyped an experience for Google Glass (just released at the time) that would allow the surgeon to see that number in their normal field of view so they wouldn’t need to take their eyes off the patient.
LAUNCH
Medtronic’s Stealth Station S8 is considered a huge step forward and a major success story for the company. It brings the system up to a more modern interface that includes gesture navigation people have grown accustomed to with their mobile devices. It is more intuitive and creates more streamlined workflows, saving precious time during complicated surgeries.
“The new user interface brings a streamlined solution with intuitive software workflows designed for ease of use. The software provides new tools for advanced visualization - allowing the surgeon to use the data intraoperatively. Patient registration improvements allow the surgeon more flexibility in registration, while providing quantitative feedback. Planning components allow them to combine valuable patient data and segment structures all integrated onto high-definition touchscreen monitors for 3D visualization to help the surgeon plan prior to entering the operating room.”
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Schlage, the premier brand associated with security and locks, was facing more and more competition - especially in the smart home/security space. Schlage brought us in to help modernize its user experience and integrate Apple’s Home Kit technology. One of the challenges was to introduce technology in a way that simplified an already pretty easy interaction with their locks. Their current line of smart locks had a touch keypad that would open the lock with just a few button presses.
DISCOVERY
We started by installing and playing with Schlage’s competitors, with a focus on Kiwi Kwikset and Schlage’s current smart lock. We installed these devices in our own homes to live the experience of having a smart lock. Kwikset used a key fob to easily unlock their doors. Schlage did not want to explore the key fob route - one scenario that Schlage wanted to avoid was inadvertently unlocking your door with your key fob when trying to prevent someone from coming into your home.
We conducted “contextual inquiry” research that involved us watching people try to install a Schlage lock in their home with a 3 hour time limit. This type of research let us see real-world scenarios in which people are struggling with missing hardware, crying babies, and other distractions/frustrations. No one was able to complete the task. Interestingly, no one read the instructions provided. One person called their Dad for help.
We also conducted “Diary Studies” which incentivized people to send us short videos throughout the day for one week documenting their experience with their Schlage lock. We learned interesting things from that work, including the fact that people installed these smart locks in their garage and that they were using geolocation to automatically unlock their door.
PROTOTYPING
After collecting user data and business goals, we began to hash out user flows and key UI elements as sticky notes and rough sketches. Keeping things at this level of fidelity in the early stages helps keep everyone (including the client) focused on interactions vs. design.
After testing interactive wireframes with users, we moved into visual design. After many rounds of A/B testing we landing on a very clean interface as pictured below. Too many colors and skeuomorphic icons just added confusion to an app that essentially has one function - locking and unlocking your door. The main interface of the app just had a button with an icon of a lock that was either opened or closed.
Schlage “Sense” was rolled out at CES with glowing reviews. It was one of the first apps to use Siri as a way to interact with your home.
“Schlage’s HomeKit deadbolt works very well within Apple’s smart-home framework, and offers a simple, intuitive app that makes it easy to manage user codes. Voice-activated Siri controls worked like a charm when we tested them out.”
One of my favorite things to do when ideating on new concepts or improving a specific feature is to conduct a “sprint.” Loosely following the Google Sprint format, we took LikeFolio through four weeks of strategy, wireframes, designing, and prototyping. This was a great way to test a new concept - can your social feed help guide you in what stocks to invest in? The video below captures the process we brought our client through.
This initial prototype resonated well in early tests with customers and we continued to iterate on the product to bring it to market. Ultimately, LikeFolio partnered with TD Ameritrade to allow investors to turn the stocks they passively explore on LikeFolio into actual investments. LikeFolio now is used by larger corporations and has an API to leverage the data it collects.
“You may have heard of crowdsourcing, which some investors now use to collect information from the masses of people on the Internet. LikeFolio also scours the Internet for information, but in a different way...The LikeFolio app is a way to attempt to make sure you’re not left out of the loop the next time a tweet puts the focus on one of your stocks.”
I’m happy to present an overview of my most recent two hardware product case studies in person.