Overview
Our team partnered with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to help design a national, open-source information management platform for natural history data—intended to replace several outdated systems used by museums and laboratories across the country. We led the UX strategy, translating the complex needs of diverse stakeholders into a unified, intuitive experience for cataloging millions of biological specimens.
Approach
From the outset, it was clear this project had too many legacy systems competing under one roof. With over 30 million records scattered across outdated databases and spreadsheets, our challenge was to find a unifying structure without erasing essential complexity. We conducted ongoing consultations with collection managers, touring facilities and analyzing existing tools. Despite the variance in workflows and terminology, we identified shared patterns and used them to build a common foundation.
Key Contributions
- Conducted in-depth interviews with collection managers and stakeholders across Canada
- Streamlined a tangled data structure into a single, flexible model built around “Material Samples”
- Designed end-to-end workflows for data entry, storage, and record management
- Collaborated closely with the development team to implement designs and track progress
- Facilitated weekly usability reviews and continuous iteration based on real-world feedback
Solution
We restructured the system around a single, central entity: the Material Sample. By flattening the data model in this way, we immediately reduced unnecessary complexity and made the platform more adaptable to future needs. With this streamlined foundation in place, we worked collaboratively with stakeholders to layer in the metadata and features required by each collection, without compromising usability.
Results
By the end of our engagement, the team had delivered a working Collection Management module capable of handling both individual and bulk records. Features included flexible data entry, determination tracking, and structured storage management.
Institutions began importing test data in preparation for full migration. This foundational work laid the groundwork for a scalable, unified system with national reach.
Additional Materials
Meeting Notes
Writing things down by hand helps memory retention and comprehension. It can quickly organize various thoughts and concepts much faster than typing notes into a computer.
Information Architecture
We needed to create a more logical arrangement of menu items based on use and accessibility requirements. Moving large amounts of functionality into a consolidated ‘Management’ section helps keep menus short and usable.
Before:
After:
Wireframes
The Collection Event would record how a particular Material Sample was collected. It contained geographic and collector information, as well as some habitat fields. This was the most important page of the entire application by far, because it would see the most use by the many different types of users.
Component Design
Showing possible variations of the same UI component based on different use-cases.
Home Page Design
One of the later UI revisions showing a revised header navigation and menu as well as a re-organized home page with multiple columns for the ‘quick links’.
