Proper labelling practices in the lab is one of the first things students are taught at the practical courses. As a matter of fact, labelling is an essential part of data management for scientists while working in the laboratory. And if you ever worked in a lab, you must know how much time you usually spent to label every single tube, falcon, vial, bottle etc.
The Problem
Appropriate labelling is an essential research practice. It is fundamental to day-to-day operation and long-term sample storage in laboratories. Creating labels with handwriting is convenient, adaptable, and often the standard method scientists use. However, variabilities in label format and illegible messy handwriting can both lead to flawed and/or erroneous communication, resulting in, for example, loss of important biological samples. Moreover, writing labels by hand for large scale experiments or a high number of samples is time-consuming and creates ergonomic stress. The problem presented called for a labelling method that is automated, user-friendly, and affordable.
The Project
We proposed to develop an IOS app that allows biological and medical laboratories to operate in a consistent and efficient manner, by making label design and printing more accessible.
We envisaged an app which is user-friendly, automated, and compatible with affordable label printers. To accomplish our goal, we followed a stepwise approach composed of three parts: user interface design, technical structure of the app and testing the app.
Efficient label creation frees scientists from the laborious task of writing labels by hand. Consistently and systematically designed labels ensure samples stored for long term are readable and used accurately. The app will be free, meaning that convenient label printing will be accessible to the wider scientific community.
What Has Been Achieved So Far?
Our team of five is composed of a molecular biologist, a microbiologist, a geneticist, a bioinformatician and a software developer. We started by self-teaching ourselves how to design and develop an app since most of us never worked on app development before.
Interface design decisions were made not only to be attractive to potential users, but also to be functional and simplistic as possible. One aspect of the design is visual elements. We decided on aesthetic choices such as a colour scheme throughout the app. We considered colour blindness since 4.5% of the global population experience colour-blindness. Next, we decided on the name of the app: sciTAG. We did market research to make sure this name is not a trademark. Finally, we designed an app logo depicting a double-stranded DNA alongside the name of the app.
From left: Junyan Liu (Postdoctoral Researcher, Sanger Institute), Marta Matuszewska (PhD student, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge) Begum Akman (Research Associate, Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge), Chuqiao Gong (Software developer, EMBL-EBI), Ellis Kelly (PhD student, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge)
Then, we identified the features that are crucial for our target audience. We divided the label design into two blocks by keeping it as simple as possible with choices included to create a good label.
From left to right: home screen, label design screen, prototype label in PDF format.
Next step was to layer the technical structure: first user input information used to create a printable object such as PDF. Second, to convert this object to a storable object within the app. Finally, the app had to be compatible with commercially available label printers.
What’s Next For The sciTAG Team?
With the help of the Biomarker Challenge funding, we sourced several label printers available in the market to test sciTAG app. Among these printers only one of them is specific for lab settings (very expensive!) and others are highly affordable printers that we sourced from different companies. We distributed these printers within the team, and we are planning to complete the sciTAG prototype, start testing and reporting our experiences.
After the successful tests from the team, we are planning to recruit five laboratories within University of Cambridge to further test and optimize the sciTAG app. Eventually we are aiming to make sciTAG freely available to the science community on the App Store. Further down the line we also would like to consider making our app available for android users.