Reimagining data import for a lab inventory system
A critical workflow in a complex inventory product was quietly costing users hours. Usability testing exposed why, and led to a redesign that cut the steps by more than two-thirds.
Cut the number of steps to import inventory data by more than two-thirds. A daily workflow users had dreaded, redesigned and met with relief.
Context
IDBS builds scientific software used by some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and research organisations. Inventory is a key product in that suite: it lets laboratories store, track, and retrieve samples, materials, and equipment. For all its capability, one workflow sat at the centre of users’ daily frustration: getting their data into the system in the first place.
Importing inventory data was something users did constantly, often with large Excel files, and the existing flow made it laborious. The temptation in cases like this is to patch the screen, adding a button or tweaking a label. I wanted to understand whether the problem was the interface or the workflow underneath it.
Approach
Rather than iterate on the existing design, I stepped back and treated the import as a problem to be re-examined from the user’s goal outward.
- Usability testing first. I ran structured usability tests on the existing workflow, which made the failure points impossible to argue with. Watching real users stall in the same places turned a vague sense of “this is clunky” into specific, evidenced problems.
- Designed against the goal, not the feature. The user’s actual goal was simple: get my data in, accurately, in as few steps as possible. I designed a new import approach around that, then tested the concept before committing it to development.
- Validated before building. Prototype testing meant we walked into development already knowing the new flow worked, rather than hoping it would.
Outcome
The redesigned import reduced the number of steps required by over two-thirds. More tellingly, the user response went past polite approval to genuine excitement, thanks, and relief. That emotional reaction is the clearest signal that a redesign has solved a real, lived problem rather than a cosmetic one.
It’s also a case I come back to often as an argument for test-driven design: the usability tests validated the final work, but more usefully they defined the problem precisely enough to justify rethinking the workflow instead of decorating it.