The Role of Ergonomics and UX Design in the field of Biohacking or Open-sourced Biotechnology

Abstract: The field of biohacking, although nascent, has had a fair share of controversy in the recent past. This is mainly due to an influx of snake oil salesmen trying to peddle unproven supplements. This field, pioneered by former NASA scientist Jo Zayner, George F Church & Preston Estep from Harvard, and Open-source movement activists like Quinn Wilton, aimed at making Biotechnology and gene modification tools accessible, open-sourced, and available to the general public for the greater good of humanity. Since this field requires a setup of mini labs in people’s homes, kitchens, and garages, we obviously understand the need for biosafety ergonomics, as well as instructions to handle bioreactors and conduct experiments require UI; therefore, there is an inevitable need for UCD principles in that area. Practical Implications: This paper will showcase a UI designed for one such use case and talk about how an incubator and autoclave can be prepared at home using off-the-shelf examples with live examples of growing limestone bacteria. We will talk about some best practices required for the same. The other aim of this paper is to increase awareness of this area so that more people can pick this up and conduct experiments.