When Environment and Interface Meet: How Industrial Lab Environment Affects Interaction with Lab Technology

While user experience is often considered in interface design, the specific impact of lab environments on interaction with technology is not well understood. This study explores how the environment of industrial labs in the life science industry affects users when they interact with a lab instrument and its small graphical user interface (GUI). It aims to answer the research question: How does the industrial lab environment in the life science industry affect expert users’ interaction with a small GUI on a lab instrument? The research focuses on expert users who are familiar with the instruments. Using a qualitative approach, the research combines observations with think-aloud and semi-structured interviews to understand how the lab environment may influence the interaction. Thematic analysis is used to identify themes in the collected data. Results show several factors in the lab environment that can negatively affect users’ interaction with a lab instrument. Four themes were found: noise, light, space, and temperature and humidity. The findings also show how the interaction is not only affected by lab environmental factors alone, but also by factors created by the technology itself which is integrated in that environment, along with factors emerging from the environment and the instrument together, as they shape interaction in their relationship with each other. The findings provide new insights for designing user-friendly interfaces for technologies in labs that better support expert users in complex lab environments.