“A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally important, what is not.”
Mark Uehling of ClinPage recently published an article on goBalto Tracker and its implications for the clinical trial software industry. (Tracker is a web-based platform for study managers to automate clinical trial startup). I wrote this post to expand on some of the principles, which guide how we design our products for the clinical research industry.
The goBalto ethos? FOCUS. (AKA “Build products that are super easy to use”)
It takes courage to be innovative, especially if you decide to eliminate clutter in favor of focused, simple, and elegant design. The problem with clinical software solutions today is that they are built by clinical research professionals for clinical research professionals (or database engineers for other database engineers). The result is feature creep – adding more bells and whistles than most users will ever want or use. Traditional CTMS systems are overwhelming, especially given that the vast majority of study managers do not use many of the more advanced features.
goBalto is going in an entirely opposite direction. We are driven by a philosophy that says every study and site manager’s touch point in our website – must be SIMPLE, ELEGANT and FOCUSED. While our competitors continue to cram features, tabs and reports into their products, we will NOT. Our focus is on the user experience while the traditional software providers who come from the clinical research industry and IT departments see the world in terms of features and tabs. Every design element has to be approachable and un-intimidating. Here are 4 ways we make our solutions super easy to use.
1. Obey the Five Second Rule
At goBalto, we employ a 5 second rule. Whenever we create a page, and show it someone, that person has to be able to know what to do on that page within 5 seconds. If not, we try to figure out what is confusing them. In addition, our users have to understand how to use Tracker and be able to use it without the aid of a manual. This 5 second rule governs many of our design decisions.
2. Build a SUPER Simple Website
You’d think that designing a simple site is easy. It’s NOT. Simple design takes time and skill. It’s easy to add clutter. Anyone can do that, and since many websites look as if they were designed by 13 year olds, clutter is common. These solutions are not considering the end user. It’s ironic that adding clutter is easier than eliminating content that detracts from the focus of your sites. Having too much stuff or offering too many choices ultimately distracts from the user’s experience. (Don’t believe me? Run a search on “Columbia University Jam Study”).
3. Hide Complexity
It is critical we hide complexity from the user. When you are using a Clinical Trial software, you’re buying it to manage the mountain of data. You don’t want to be an expert in manipulating information, running complex reports or understanding file formats. You want to open up the solution and see it work. That’s our mantra at goBalto. Design is how things work, not just how things look. Our goal is to design simple, easy to use products. Creating simple products means reducing complexity by eliminating feature or buttons that distract from the product’s core task. In the case of Tracker, the core task is tracking site activation tasks and study documents. That’s it. We are constantly inundated with feature requests. But, as Steve Jobs put it, it’s about being just as proud of the things you leave out as much what we put in. Trying to make everyone happy adds to complexity, and the ultimate outcome is disappointment. Competing solutions like CTMS have a-lot of functionality but are “tricky” and “confusing” to setup and hard to navigate.
C3 Research Associates co-founder Margaret Warner-Lubin also deems Tracker “promising,” based on her first few weeks of experience with the platform on a 60-site phase II test of a diagnostic tool. She’s especially pleased it doesn’t require a “programming mindset,” as does another commercially available study management system being used in parallel. “I really like [Tracker’s] simplicity. I don’t have to drill down four or five levels to find information… [and] that makes me want to use it more.” Being a visual learner, she’s also grateful the “help” section includes videos. The solution has to very, very easy to set up. Everyone has to be able to use it. Especially those who do not consider themselves tech savvy.
4. Ask the MOST Important Question Each Day
Each day we ask, “How can I make the study manager’s life easier, simpler and better?’” Our focus is to build solutions that allow the study manager to focus on what they do best. Running and completing trials in a safe and efficient manner. We want to build elegant products that solve real-world problems.
Introducing goBalto Tracker: the Easiest, Fastest Way to Start Your Clinical Trial On the Web.
Tracker is the easiest way to start clinical trials on the web. Everything about Tracker is designed so that the study manager can set up their study and start using it right away (in minutes). As opposed to being overwhelmed by buttons, reports, tabs and links, visitors to Tracker are presented with a simple dashboard, with a handful of tabs limited to providing status and managing study documents. On first glance, the user sees a study status chart. The layers come next. For example, click the image of a status bar, and the site takes you to a more detailed status page, but it’s a page that is still simple. The subpage highlights the tasks completed and those that are still outstanding. If you want to learn more about who owns a task, click a related link to reassign tasks. The point is to eliminate clutter from each page. Most CTMS programs try to cram everything into one page. A confused customer is a lost customer.
Rather than aspiring to being “beautiful” and “trendy”, we are aspiring to be “good.” With Tracker, we aren’t setting out to build a “beautiful” but unapproachable interface. We are building a good product that is approachable and easy to use. A well designed website is elegant because it allows study and site managers to quickly and simply do what they want to do. At the start of each day, we ask ourselves “How can I make the study and site manager’s life easier, simpler and better?” That’s the essence of goBalto and Tracker.
If you’re a study manager or site owner and are interested in learning more about how Tracker can help you start your clinical trial, please send us an email here, and someone will be in touch.
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so you might have heard Flip was shut down by Cisco. too bad. i liked the camera myself, but it shows how starting off simple is great, but a solution has to evolve.
here’s an article from CNN which summarizes where Flip faltered. http://bit.ly/ihBph7