Project Overview
Six teams were assigned OmniSync to design a grant management interface, over a 15 week period, for academic researchers applying to NIH grants.
Our value proposition for our target audience was a streamlined grants workflow, and features that facilitated and centralized collaboration, as well as a simplified way to manage the use of reusable assets.
Problem Space
COEUS
MIT’s grant management software from the 1990s.
Currently most popular option for large research institutions, including Johns Hopkins. Leaves much to be desired and opaque design causes frustrations.
Kuali COEUS
Actively working with research institutions to upgrade from original COEUS.
Primary threat to OmniSync. Transition in process with Johns Hopkins.
Design Question: How can we improve the existing grants workflow on OmniSync’s TurboSBIR to help academic researchers apply for NIH grants?
OmniSync
OmniSync’s SBIR product is not captivating the attention of PIs that want to apply for NIH grants.
They need a design that convinces PIs it is worth the time to learn and makes their research team more efficient.
Process
Literature Review | User Interviews | Persona Creation | Usability Testing TurboSBIR |
Low-fidelity Prototype | Usability Testing | Mid-fidelity Prototype
Version history feature
Text editor comment feature
Expanded chat functionality
Outcome
Out of the six presentations, OmniSync selected our team’s prototype to improve their product
Added version history that allows users to track changes on grant documents
Added comment feature on the text editor to increase collaboration and feedback
Expanded chat feature to allow for communication across different grants
Reflections and Lessons Learned
Conduct a heuristic evaluation on a client’s site to identify usability problems before usability testing
Take screenshots or a recording of client’s current interface to track all of the recommendation that are incorporated
This project was a great opportunity to develop my prototyping skills using Figma
Team Members & Roles
Owen O’Malley | Kristen Barbour | Leo Buser
Literature review I took lead on the organization of how grant management softwares are implemented in research institutions.
Each member conducted user interviews, developed a persona, and moderated a usability test on TurboSBIR
Built the low-fidelity prototypes collaboratively in Figma, I focused on the chat and message pages
Each member moderated a usability test on our low-fidelity prototype
Using feedback from the prototype testing we made improvements to our prototype
Divided our final presentation into three equal sections