Genetic Trait Reports

• Reports were showing low enagement
  
• A vocal minority of users wanted more technical information
• Most users were underwhelmed or bored
• Needed to identify areas of interest for future report development

• Technical data was the only real content we had on hand
• Solution needed to be modular, and support all report types (traits, conditions, carrier status)

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Old Report Designs:
(These are doozies)

• Post-results user interviews: We gathered users to conduct discovery sessions by working with customer support to identify users who’d submitted tickets because their results were “wrong,” and by intercepting users via Intercom while on their results.
• Pre-result user observation: We created a survey to be displayed after kit-purchase and in kit-ship confirmation emails to collect users willing to open their results under product tiger-team observation.
• Painted Door Testing: Created several upsell opportunities post purchase to assess interest in different trait types to direct next stage of investment, measured click through and form results.

We sought sentiment around expecations, discussed reactions, and helped explain results. We dove deep on what users expected to be able to do with their results, who they would share results with, and their interest in traits in general.

Findings

• Users felt the reports were sterile, too dry, and explanations overly “text-booky”
  
• Users expected an extreme degree of accuracy from Genetic Science
  
• Users did not understand the difference between genotypic and phenotypic characteristics
  
• Users mainly wanted to explore and compare their results to others
• Users wanted to see any- and everything we could show them.

Recommendations

• Overhaul copy and visuals to create a modern, informal-but-informative report
• Anchor the page around interactivity, utilize our survey service & reusable data viz
• Provide contextual comparison to help users better investigate their results
• Decouple Traits from other Health products, move to core DNA experience

UI & UX
I suggested we stop looking at other medical or health products and start looking at more accessible social products to inform our approach: we looked at products like LastFM’s listener habits data visualizations, and OkCupid’s match metrics. 

Copy
At the same time, my product manager and I began identifying consumer experiences that were running into our same problems copy-wise, and felt had handled them well: banking and investing services. We looked for copy that had taken dry, technical information and made it approachable and easily understood. I worked with my product manager to workshop copy, and then built a repository and reference guide for our UX writer to polish and templatize.

Proposed Document Structure

Final Experiences


Abbreviated technical report that jumps you to the full report if requested.


Inserted Featured Survey to gather phenotypic results while education user.
 

Bold, simple “pop science” illustrations to punctuate, and break-up content into digestible tidbits.

Before & After

Interactive Prototype