ROLE
DURATION
Jul' 24 - Sep' 24
As the sole Product Designer at Moon Surgical, I redesigned their robot's second-generation human interface to drive expansion across U.S. hospitals. Through analysis of screens, logs, and feedback, I addressed visual hierarchy and cognitive load issues. The new icon-focused system streamlined use, improved recognition, and boosted adoption nationwide.
Project Overview
CONTEXT
Surgical teams use Maestro's human-machine interface to control the robot digitally
The interface lets them set up the robot for specific laparoscopic surgeries. The set up includes choosing procedure, poses, positioning, arm presets, camera modes, force, etc.
GOAL
Identifying friction points of users and creating a design system which tackles those problems and supports widespread adoption
Our team had a high level idea of user problems and needs and were aware that we needed a new design system. I focused on pinpointing friction areas by talking to users.
Problem
WHY WAS A REDESIGN NEEDED?
We analyzed the user complaints and spoke to them which uncovered issues such as clutter, confusion, cognitive overload. These high level reasons caused the users to cancel robotic surgeries and continue traditional ones.
Excessive touch targets in a linear flow
Users expected to follow a linear, three step journey to complete the robot setup, but the interface showed too many touch targets in a disorganized, often close packed fashion, causing cognitive fatigue, hesitation, and errors.
Unclear Instructions
Guided instructions for setup lacked visual hierarchy and clarity, leaving users unsure of what to do next - leading to backtracking, and time consuming setup.
Fault modals with no context
When a fault occurs, modals appear without contextual fault message or recovery option, often blocking the entire interface - forcing users to restart the system - breaking trust and disrupting critical workflows.
Design Process
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
To solve these problems, I followed three key design principles for the redesign.
The principles addressed several of these issues, including an icon based system with less clutter and higher focus. Because faults in a high stake system should be easier to deal with, handling was prioritized. Finally, the flow was simplified by making it more straight forward.
Emphasis on icons
Prioritize Fault Handling
Movement Guidance
DESIGN SYSTEM
I followed the atomic design methodology to create the design system, keeping in mind the established design principles.
Solution
IMPLEMENTATION
To reduce cognitive overload and make the process simple and clear, only the must have features were surfaced during setup (positioning, locking, etc).
Instead of displaying screen blocking modals with no context, bright labels are displayed at the top which does not hinder user's view of other elements and give more information.
We decided to only have must have instructions as immersive animation to briefly guide the user through the adjustment process. Everything else was loaded into a reference manual.
To maintain cognitive clarity, the process was visually divided into 3 different screens, prerequisites, setup, and surgery. It was a linear process.
Video of GUI 2.0 showing ideal linear user journey
IMPACT
TAKEAWAY