Overview

Outcome:

The new user-friendly interface dashboard allows patients to better understand their health, communicate with healthcare providers and take informed steps to improve their wellness. This fosters clarity, trust and meaningful transformation, while encouraging practitioners to stay within the Salient Bio ecosystem, driving retention and revenue growth.

​​

My Role:

Conducted research, developed personas, mapped user flows, designed wireframes and designed usability testing. I also led the team by communicating with each team member if they had any concerns and organising tasks and deadlines.

​

Challenges:

At present, test results are delivered as long, text-heavy PDFs. While accurate, they overwhelm patients and make the next steps less clear. Our goal was to align the patient experience with Salient Bio’s mission of accessible, preventative healthcare.

Research

Competitor Analysis:

Analysed competitors to see how they present complex health data and found three common gaps: 

• Reports are either too simple or too overwhelming

• Next steps are often unclear

• Some are friendly but lack rigor, while others are too data-heavy

This created an opportunity for Salient Bio to stand out by delivering clinically robust insights in clear, intuitive language, streamlining the presentation so users know where they stand, and combining engaging storytelling with medical authority to build both trust and motivation.

​

User Flow:

Mapped out the user flow to understand how patients would interact with the dashboard and determine which information would be most important.

Usability Testing

Research Goal:

We devised a research goal to help shape our methodology:

 "To evaluate whether users can easily interpret their results, navigate the dashboard to find insights, recommendations, and support, and feel guided toward clear next steps that build confidence and trust."

​​

Research Methodology:​

• Number of participants: 5 people

• Participant demographic: 25-50 years old

• Tasks tested: 5 tasks (covering quantitative and qualitative insights)

​

Key Findings:

Usability testing showed users could complete tasks, however, there were some uncertainty which we needed to improve on.

1. Lack of visibility in the next steps, highlighting the need for a clearer call-to-action

2. Unclear navigation cues

3. Health insights were not easily grasped at a glance

4. Unclear numeric score ranges

Design

Mid-fidelity Wireframes / Prototype

The dashboard solves the key problems patients are facing:

​

1. Doctor's Summary:​​

   • Patients often struggled to interpret PDF reports, so this section gives them a clear, simple starting point. Microbiome diversity is shown at a glance, and one click reveals a doctor’s interpretation and next steps—making the results easier to understand.

2. Key Insights: ​

   • Traditional reports overloaded patients with information. Our design surfaces only the most relevant insights on a single card, with optional plain-language explanations for each biomarker. This keeps the experience approachable while giving patients control over how much they explore.

3. Health Risks:

   • Risk information was previously buried in PDFs. The dashboard now highlights exactly how many risks apply and provides a clean, expandable breakdown. Each condition includes an easy-to-read explanation, making risks straightforward and accessible.​

4. Microbiome Breakdown:

   • Instead of static text, patients can interact with their results—comparing their microbiome to a healthy reference group and opening concise explanations for key species. This helps them understand both the big picture and the details on their own terms.

5. Book a Consultation:

   • Patients can schedule a consultation directly from the dashboard, allowing them to take action as soon as they review their results.

6. Action Plan:

   • One of the biggest patient frustrations was not knowing what to do next. The action plan stays visible in the right column, offering quick access to recommended steps and detailed guidance when needed. This keeps next steps clear, actionable, and easy to follow.​

The dashboard turns long, static reports into a clear and interactive experience—making results easier to understand, next steps actionable, and patients more engaged in their health.

Conclusion

We pitched our idea of the dashboard to Salient Bio and received positive feedback, expressing that they would like to implement our idea.