Solving complex lab errors 25% faster, with 15% fewer escalations globally.

Atellica Troubleshooting Assistant: empowering lab technicians worldwide.

The Challenge: Complex Lab Errors, High Costs

In high-throughput laboratories, every minute counts.
Technicians working with the Atellica® Solution — a sophisticated immunoassay and clinical chemistry system — often faced assay errors that were difficult to diagnose.

Troubleshooting was a nightmare:

Error logs were scattered across subsystems.
Many technicians had low IT literacy.
Downtime meant delayed patient results and increased costs.

Whenever a problem occurred, labs had to escalate issues to expert engineers, leading to expensive site visits and hours (sometimes days) of lost productivity.

Our Mission

Design a web-based assistant that simplifies troubleshooting, empowers technicians globally, and reduces unnecessary escalations.

My Role

I was the UX Designer for the Atellica Troubleshooting Assistant. I led research, designed workflows and prototypes, and applied the SHUI Design System for consistency.

I collaborated with requirement engineers, PMs, and lab teams across global markets to ensure the product was intuitive, technically feasible, and aligned with real lab needs.

Target Audience & Stakeholders

Primary Users:

Lab Technicians: Perform day-to-day troubleshooting; often low IT literacy
Lab Managers: Monitor overall system health, track recurring issues, and oversee resolution success

Secondary Stakeholders:

Field Engineers & Experts: Receive escalated issues for deeper analysis
Business Leadership: Interested in reducing downtime, service costs, and improving efficiency

Stakeholder Goals:

Enable technicians to self-resolve issues
Reduce unnecessary escalations
Provide actionable insights for lab managers and engineers

Research & Planning

Methods:

Contextual inquiry with field service engineers
Interviews with lab managers and support leadership
Analysis of historical error logs and resolution records

Key Findings:

Engineers struggled to interpret raw error logs remotely
Lack of structured workflows caused repeated escalations
Global differences in lab setups and regulations required flexible yet consistent solutions

Planning Outcome:

Defined guided flows for troubleshooting based on error types and severity
Prioritized dashboard metrics: recurring issues, resolution success, escalation history
Designed system to integrate seamlessly with LIS

User Persona

Design Process

Step 1: Ideation & User Flows

Mapped current troubleshooting workflow → identified bottlenecks
Designed dual-path flows: guided for juniors, direct access for seniors
Created wireframes for dashboard, step-by-step troubleshooting, and escalation reports

Step 2: Prototyping & Iteration