The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving, but so are we, when approaching new challenges. At our department we utilize the latest technologies such as virtual- and augmented reality during product development. This allows us to make our solutions tangible in the early stages of the process.

Hi my name is Isabella Kanne. I usually start my projects by gathering existing information. Thankfully in Roche we have very experienced colleagues as well as massive amounts of in-depth knowledge and expertise from previous user research activities. If we still find gaps in our internal knowledge-base, we conduct further user research to ensure we have a solid understanding of the problems our users face. Our next step in the user-centered design process is translating the insights into design concepts. The resulting concepts (often combining soft- and hardware) are tested in an early stage of the design process with users so that quick, iterative changes to our proposed designs can be made. In order to do so, we often make prototypes by ourselves; the hardware prototypes range from simple, using cardboard boxes or foam board, to more advanced, utilizing prototyping tools to produce 3D printed or milled parts. Software prototypes begin as simple wireframes on paper to interactive, high fidelity prototypes on a screen. Using these tools and methods allows us to get valuable feedback from end users on how they would interact with the proposed solution and improve the solution design accordingly, all before we even start development.

Our impact
As a UX Designer, I design solutions such as instruments, digital healthcare platforms and IT products for the healthcare environment. In an industry where patients’ lives depend on accurate diagnostic test results, we place the user in the center of our process and design intuitive solutions to reduce user errors.

For example, in one project, we built a virtual reality environment for a hospital as well as hospital lab and placed a concept testing device inside. Our team members were not only able to experience the hospital and laboratory environment first hand, but we could also test the workflows on the concept device all within the virtual environment.

The place to Work
One of my favorite things about working at Roche is being part of an interdisciplinary team of experts from all over the world. A main success factor for Roche products is that they are able to be used in a variety of different settings. I believe that having the opportunity to exchange within Roche's large international network fosters to understand the different environments and cultural thinking patterns of our end users.