Petrifilm™ Plate Manager
Food safety testing errors don’t just slow down labs — they can compromise public health outcomes. Petrifilm processes hundreds of thousands of samples annually across regulated environments where accuracy and consistency are required.
Overview
Petrifilm™ Plate Manager is a fully integrated hardware and software system designed to reduce labor time, automate microbial testing analysis, and minimize human error. The system streamlines lab workflows and improves consistency across testing environments.
Objective
To design an MVP for high-volume throughput labs that simplifies workflows, improves accuracy and decision making, and standardizes outcomes across technicians.
➜ What we delivered
Content-aware system software that enhances system visibility with real-time status, progress, and results feedback. It supports technicians with guided error resolution during workflow interruptions and introduces structured review states to mark plates as reviewed and completed, improving traceability and workflow control.
Company
Neogen/3M
Product
Petrifilm™ Plate Manager
Role
UX Design Lead
Year
2022-2024
Platform
Desktop PC application
Petrifilm Plates
The current system utilizes 11 individual algorithms, specifically trained to identify each plate type.
Preliminary Research
Target audience
High-volume food safety testing labs, food and beverage manufacturing facilities, and third-party contract labs that produce more than 100K samples annually.
Preliminary Research
Proto-personas
Established a foundation for user experience based on real-world insights, addressed key user pain points provided from customer feedback, support tickets, and sales reports.
Primary user
Lab Technician
Goals
- Ensure technicians can run large batches efficiently and consistently
- Standardize processes using presets and controlled configurations
Roles
- Execute test workflows—plate preparation, loading, running tests
- Follow predefined presets and lab protocols
- Depend on lab manager configurations—presets, data fields
Behaviors
- Works in loud, high-distraction environments
- Operates in cluttered or space-constrained areas
- May rush or lose focus under pressure
- Relies on simple, guided workflows over complex decision-making
Pain points
- Unclear or inconsistent setup leads to errors before tests even begin
- Error states are hard to understand or recover from
- Interruptions and distractions break workflow continuity
- Lack of confidence when results need validation
Secondary user
Lab Manager
Goals
- Ensure consistency and quality across all testing
- Improve efficiency through standardization (presets)
- Maintain accuracy and data integrity (LIMS)
Roles
- Configure presets—plate types, dilutions, data fields—and support technicians
- Oversee technician workflows and output
- Validate data is captured correctly in LIMS
- Train and support technicians
- Step in for exceptions—escalations, gaps, high-priority samples
Behaviors
- Prioritizes speed + oversight over hands-on execution
- Experiences cognitive overload / decision fatigue
- Frequently multitasking across people and systems
- Monitors multiple technicians simultaneously
Pain points
- Inconsistent execution across technicians leads to unreliable results
- Limited visibility into technician actions and errors
- Data inconsistencies create downstream issues in LIMS
- Training new technicians is time-intensive and difficult to scale
Guerilla User testing
Testing the prototype
Through usability testing we observed and recorded live-clients to validate behaviors and system workflows.
Customer sessions
During the conference, we conducted guerilla usability testing with several key clients. This gave us an opportunity to receive immediate in-the-moment feedback.
2
Full work days
17
Real-world customers
10
Minute testing session
78%
of participants
Initially had trouble loading plates and need help getting started.
High Barrier to Entry: Nearly 4 out of 5 users struggle with the physical action of loading plates and require initial guidance.
Create an onboarding walkthrough for plate loading to get users started
50%
of participants
Will need tech-support for Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) integration.
Technical Integration Gap: Half of the participants cannot integrate with their Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) independently.
Standardize LIMS with self-service configuration wizard (out of scope)
50%
of participants
Are currently adding barcode labels to each plate manually.
Manual Inefficiency: Half of the users are still manually labeling barcodes.
Automated barcode generation (out of scope)
Define and ideate
Core pain points
Friction shared by technicians and lab managers
Inconsistent workflow & manual setup
Inconsistency in how tests are run and recorded can cause errors and lower confidence in results.
Fragile workflow continuity
Without clear recovery paths or visibility, technicians are forced to restart or guess at fixes.
Ambiguous results
A lack of contextual information makes it difficult for technicians to interpret results accurately or feel certain that a task is truly complete.
Problem statement
Inconsistent execution and hard-to-recover errors leave technicians with low confidence in their results, primarily due to a lack of clear guidance and workflow visibility.
Define and ideate
Design goals & core workflows
To address these challenges, we are focusing on these core design goals to provide guidance, continuity, and visibility.
Goal 1
Guided flows & Setup
Efficiency & Standardization
Minimize manual configuration by utilizing presets and automated inputs. This ensures high-volume processing stays consistent across all technicians, regardless of experience level.
Error & Recovery handling
Operational Resilience
Eliminate workflow fragility by allowing users to pause and resume tasks without data loss. Provide clear, actionable feedback that empowers technicians to resolve errors independently and stay on the ‘happy path’.
Review, Validate & Complete
Informed Completion
Prioritize critical information at the point of need to reduce cognitive load. By surfacing only what is relevant to the current task, we ensure high confidence in final validation and successful completion.
Workflow 1
Guided flows & set up
We designed a preset-driven setup flow that reduces decision points for technicians and ensures consistent execution regardless of experience level.
Workflow 2
Error & recovery handling
Error states were redesigned to surface contextual guidance at the moment of failure — keeping technicians on the happy path without requiring tech support intervention.
Workflow 3
Review, validate & complete
The review state was restructured to surface incomplete plates explicitly, reducing guesswork and building confidence in final validation.
Strategic vision
How can we increase task efficiency and trust by minimizing unpredictable decisions and workflow interruptions?
Design and Prototype
Building an MVP for launch
We focused on developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that addressed core user needs while maintaining a lean development cycle.
Collaborative ideation
Facilitated collaborative ideation sessions using Miro to align cross-functional stakeholders—including R&D and Sales—on product vision. This collaborative wireframing approach streamlined feature prioritization and ensured the MVP addressed both technical constraints and primary business objectives.
Design & Prototype
User interface design (UI)
We leveraged reusable code and modular components to streamline the build process, ensuring consistency across the platform. While maintaining familiarity, we matured our design system to support the unique requirements of the automated lab environments, creating a balance between legacy users with new or future users.
User Acceptance testing
Preparing for launch
Validating all workflows before launch the product launch. Using 5 key workflows we invited 6 participants, internal experts (customer success, microbiologists & engineers).
User Acceptance testing
Observations outlined by task
1
Initiate plate runs
Fast setup with minimal input
Observations
- Users need a more explicit first action or system prompt—unclear starting cues increase cognitive load at entry.
50% of users needed help to get started despite the system being ready.
2
Review results
Clear outputs with high confidence
Observations
- Plate images and details could be larger or zoomable to support quick identification.
- The system should explicitly display to users all incomplete plates instead of requiring guesswork.
33% of participants encountered unexpected system errors during result review.
3
Handle exceptions
Resolve issues without breaking workflow
Observations
- The system should diagnose device maintenance by providing clear next steps to prevent workflow interruption.
- Key transition points require guidance to support continuous workflow.
- Exception handling should reduce cognitive load for technicians.
100% of participants struggled to locate the correct plates when handling exceptions.
4
Continue batch processing
Support uninterrupted, high-volume processing
Observations
- Users need clear guidance to continue processing plates.
100% of participants hesitated or were unsure how to respond when the input bin is empty.
5
Respond to notifications
Surface issues without disrupting focus
Observations
- Display actionable next steps to reduce reliance on tech support.
- Users require contextualized errors to reduce confusion and improve trust in the system
100% of participants experienced workflow interruptions when errors occurred.
What changed based on observations
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Design in practice
A walk-away solution
Petrifilm™ Automated Feeder introduces hands-free plate feeding. Allows technicians to continue other tasks reducing idle time between steps. The system runs in the background, automatically interpretating and sorting plates. The automated feeder can process up to 300 plates in approximately 33 minutes.
The software application was developed as part of the Petrifilm™ automation package and supports core tasks such as plate identification with barcode scanning, automated colony counting, and data capture. It integrates with existing laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and reduces reliance on manual data entry—helping ensure accuracy, traceability, and repeatability in regulated lab environments.
