Zone of Inhibition
UX Research · Usability Testing · Prototyping · Adobe XD
A 6-month UX design internship at Singer Instruments — a UK-based company founded in 1934 that builds laboratory automation robotics used in genetic and genomic research worldwide. I worked embedded in the user experience design team designing features for their PIXL colony picker.
50–83%
Reduction in transcription time by automating UX team interviews using Whisper.
ZOI shipped
Delivered UX recommendations implemented directly in the PIXL product from early-stage until Beta launch.
Intern of the Year
Awarded at the Singer Christmas Party for impact on the team and across the company.
Internship extension
Started on a 3-month contract and earned a 3-month extension based on my contributions to the UX team and the ZOI project.
Images taken during visits to Singer Instruments lab in Minehead, Somerset.
UX design in biotechnology
Intern of the year diploma
Scientists are power users — they have deep domain knowledge but often interact with software that wasn’t designed with them in mind. At Singer, I had to learn the science well enough to design for it: understanding petri dishes, colony picking, and inhibition zones before I could meaningfully improve the interface around them.
The main challenge was translating complex scientific workflows into interfaces that felt intuitive without oversimplifying them. I worked in an Agile environment alongside engineers and scientists, running user research, heuristic evaluations, and usability testing sessions directly with the researchers who used the product.
Central Colony Zone of Inhibition (ZOI) Project
The ZOI project was a new feature for the PIXL colony picker, designed to let scientists analyse inhibition areas in petri dishes. I owned the UX from research through to prototype, working with Adobe XD, Jira, and Fibery.
My contributions included heuristic evaluations, user flow design, prototype iterations, and leading A/B testing sessions. Findings were compiled into recommendations shared with the full company.
Watch the BETA video presentation · Feature page on Singer Instruments
User flow for the ZOI feature. Source: Singer Instruments