384-Well Plate Map Design
About the project
Optimizing Assay Workflows from expanding 96-Well Plate Map Setup design to 384-Well Plate Map design on the Promega ProNect™ Data Platform. Professional project for my internship password protected.
My role:
UX/UI Design Intern, UX Research
Timeframe:
2 months.
Project Overview 🦠
Promega is a global biotechnology company that provides innovative solutions for life sciences; CellTiter-Glo is one of its flagship assays used to measure cell viability, and ProNect is a digital platform designed to streamline assay setup and data management workflows.
As part of a cross-functional initiative at Promega, I led UX design research to reimagine digital tools for 384-well plate mapping. Our goal was to improve workflows for scientists working in high-throughput areas like genomics, drug discovery, and cell-based assays by making plate setup more intuitive, accurate, and scalable.
How might we extend the ProNect Data Platform to support both 96-well and 384-well plate formats so that scientists can seamlessly analyze experimental data across different plate types?
UX Research & Insights 🔍
To build a foundational understanding of user workflows and preferences, we adopted a two-phase approach that began with qualitative discovery and transitioned into broader quantitative validation.
Pain Points with Existing Tools (Excel, GraphPad Prism, Instrument Software) ⚠️
Lack of visual context: No intuitive way to navigate or visualize the plate as a whole.
Manual grid setup: Users must manually build and label 16×24 grids, increasing chances of error.
Poor scalability: Tools aren’t optimized for handling large plate volumes or repeated layouts.
Limited interactivity: No real-time feedback, tooltips, or contextual well information.
Fragmented workflow: Tools don’t integrate seamlessly with Promega’s reagent systems or instrument software.
Low flexibility: Hard to adapt maps quickly for different experimental needs.
Phase 1: Internal Scientist Interview
We conducted a one-on-one interview with a Promega scientist deeply familiar with high-throughput workflows and 384-well plate usage. This session helped us map out the typical end-to-end process: from designing plate layouts to integrating with instruments and analyzing outputs.
Phase 2: Survey Design & Client Outreach
Building on our interview findings, I drafted a set of 15 potential survey questions to probe deeper into user roles, throughput levels, software habits, and pain points. After refining the content with our team, we distilled the survey down to 5 essential questions to reduce friction and increase response rate.
Survey Highlights and Responses
We received initial feedback from two scientists with varying levels of plate throughput (1–10 plates per week). Key takeaways:
Tools used: Excel and GraphPad Prism were the most common.
What works: Excel is accessible and easy to edit.
Pain points:
Excel setup is extremely manual, especially for 384-well formats.
Users must build 16x24 grids and label wells by hand.
Engagement: Both respondents expressed interest in participating in future research.
Design Process ✏️
Zoom Navigation for Dense Grids
Starting from early interviews and survey insights, one of the first pain points identified was the difficulty of navigating large 384-well plate layouts in Excel. Users often struggled to manually manage 16x24 well grids, making it hard to locate, edit, or review well-level data.
To address this, I introduced a zoom and quadrant-based navigation system to break the grid into manageable sections. This allowed users to:
Zoom out to see the entire plate for a quick overview
Zoom into individual quadrants (A–D) for focused editing
Navigate through quadrants using labeled tabs for clarity and speed
This model dramatically reduced cognitive load while maintaining flexibility for users working at different scales.
Plate Type Flexibility
Dual compatibility for 96-well plates. Users could now toggle between 96- and 384-well modes using a simple selector, ensuring the tool could support both high-throughput and standard lab workflows.
Enhancing Grid Legibility
Added visual quadrant dividers (yellow lines) to segment the 384-well grid into four logical sections (A–D), helping users quickly orient themselves and reduce cognitive load when scanning or editing dense data layouts.
Introduced a quadrant carousel navigation at the bottom of the interface, allowing users to quickly recognize what grid they are viewing and jump forward and backward between plate sections without losing track of their location.
Hover Preview in Fit Mode
To enhance usability in the Fit (full plate) view, I introduced a hover-to-preview feature. When users hover over a cell, a tooltip appears showing the well’s full metadata (e.g., compound, concentration, cell type).
Concept B:
After initial testing of the quadrant-based navigation, I introduced Concept B
Added flexible zoom levels to better support different user workflows. In addition to the full plate and single-quadrant views, users could now:
Zoom into two quadrants at once (A+B or C+D) for improved context when reviewing or editing adjacent regions.
Zoom further into a single quadrant, displaying only six columns at a time, to support high-precision input where detail and accuracy are critical, such as dose-response curves or replicates.
This tiered zoom system helped users maintain both a sense of spatial orientation and fine-grained control, without overwhelming the interface.
2 extra designed screens for concept B
Reflection and Key Insights 💭
This project challenged me to think deeply about how complex scientific workflows can be simplified through thoughtful design. Working in the context of high-throughput 384-well plate mapping, I realized how important it is to create tools that are both precise and easy to use, especially when users are relying on general-purpose software that does not fully meet their needs.
One of the key lessons I took away was the importance of progressive disclosure in interface design. By allowing users to zoom and navigate between plate sections at different levels of detail, I could help them focus on just what they needed at any given moment. This approach made the experience less overwhelming and more efficient.
The process also strengthened my ability to turn qualitative insights into clear design solutions. Features like quadrant navigation and hover previews were directly inspired by real feedback from scientists who described their everyday frustrations. Collaborating with my cross-functional team helped me prioritize features that support real workflows, not just ideal ones.
This project reminded me that thoughtful, incremental improvements can have a big impact. Designing for scientists taught me how essential it is to listen carefully and create tools that feel familiar yet more effective.