Infors HT
UX Research, Scientific Tools
Redesigning bioreactor control software for laboratory professionals at Roche and Novartis.
Two products, one design language, built for scientists who couldn't afford ambiguity.
The Problem
Infors HT had two separate products that had grown apart visually and functionally. The Genesis Suite was the software scientists used to set up, monitor and manage bioreactor experiments on desktop and tablet. The Minifors was the physical bioreactor itself, with an embedded on-device screen for tracking experiments in real time. Neither interface matched the other, and neither was particularly easy to use.
The existing software, IRIS 6.0, was outdated. It lacked visual hierarchy, made experiment setup unnecessarily complicated, and gave users no clear way to monitor live data at a glance. On the hardware side, the Minifors screen had the same problem at smaller scale: key experiment data buried under an interface that hadn't been designed with the actual workflow in mind.
The users weren't casual. These were laboratory professionals at organisations like Roche, Novartis, Empa, and ETH, running validated processes where a missed reading or a confusing interface isn't just inconvenient, it's a problem with real scientific and compliance consequences.
The Solution
For the Genesis Suite, the priority was making complexity navigable without stripping away the depth expert users needed. That meant a dashboard-led structure with customisable widgets so different roles could see what was relevant to them, streamlined experiment setup flows that reduced unnecessary steps, live trendlines for real-time monitoring, and audit trail functionality to keep the platform compliant with industry standards.
For the Minifors embedded UI, the constraint was a small screen with a lot of information to carry. The work was about hierarchy and clarity, getting the most important data front and centre, reducing visual noise, and making sure a scientist mid-experiment could read and act on what they were seeing without stopping to interpret it.
Both products were brought into a shared visual language, so moving between the software and the hardware felt like one ecosystem rather than two separate decisions made by separate teams. The redesigned Genesis Suite replaced IRIS 6.0 entirely and became the foundation for future Infors software modules.
Impact
Validated With
Roche & Novartis
Platforms Unified
2
