Inside the OR: Research-Led Design for a Next-Gen Endoscopic Device
Researching surgeon and technician workflows to design a controller that manages multiple video streams, compliance requirements, & real-time decision making, seamlessly.
Product Design Research
Project Overview
Industry: Medical, Instrumentation
Timeline: 5 months
My Role: Lead User Experience Researcher
Overview
Imagine a device that seamlessly bridges advanced endoscopic tools with high-quality digital displays in a medical setting. The Versatile Controller is the heart of this system, transforming raw camera signals from single-use disposable (SUD) endoscopes into clear, high-definition video that medical professionals can rely on during procedures. This controller doesn't merely convert images; it processes and refines them, ensuring the best possible visual output on external monitors.
Challenge
Despite its advanced functionalities, designing an intuitive and efficient user interface for the Versatile Controller posed significant challenges. Managing multiple video inputs, ensuring adherence to medical compliance standards, and meeting the usability needs of a diverse user base including surgeons, technicians, and medical staff, highlighted the need for a user-centered design approach. Addressing pain points such as cumbersome controls, limited feedback, and difficulty in multitasking was crucial to enhancing the user experience.
Objective
The primary objective was to create a seamless, intuitive, and compliant user interface for the Versatile Controller that improves usability and efficiency during medical procedures.
The focus was on designing an interface that allows medical professionals to effortlessly manage multiple video inputs and customize their display preferences, ultimately enhancing workflow and reducing the cognitive load.
The Research Toolkit
To understand how endoscopic devices are truly used, not just how they're designed to be used, we combined six complementary research methods across clinical and desk-based settings:
Immersive Observation: attended real-time procedures in operating theaters to observe device use, physical workflows, and pain points as they naturally occurred.
Contextual Inquiry: visited clinical environments specifically to capture in-situ behaviors, informal workarounds, and environmental constraints that users rarely articulate in interviews.
Task & Workflow Analysis: systematically mapped user interactions with existing devices to pinpoint inefficiencies, hand-off moments, and areas where the interface broke down under real conditions.
User Interviews: conducted semi-structured interviews with surgeons, nurses, and technicians to gather firsthand perspectives on existing devices and unmet needs.
Market & Competitive Analysis: analyzed user manuals, technical specifications, and feature sets of competing endoscopic devices to identify gaps and opportunities in the current landscape.
Data Synthesis & Visualization: transformed raw research findings into visual formats (journey maps, annotated layouts, insight boards) for weekly presentations to the international client team.
Operational Workflow: Cholangioscopy
We analyzed the entire process of cholangioscopy, including its edge cases, along with the interactions and people involved in each phase. By mapping this out, we gained insights into the smallest key details and potential errors that could impact the controller's design.
Understanding the domain, environment and process
Our initial goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the domain, existing products, and regulatory requirements.
Activities Performed:
Conduct a detailed literature survey on endoscopic imaging systems and user needs.
Perform a competitor analysis of similar products, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and user experience issues.
Review regulatory compliance guidelines (HE 75, IEC 62366, IEC 60601) to ensure adherence to medical standards.
Gather insights from internal teams (engineers, product managers) on existing workflows, device integration challenges, and user requirements.
Target Audience
Several groups will interact with the controller. Nurses and Technicians typically operate the controller UI directly while physicians perform procedures. Hospital IT personnel are responsible for configuring network settings.
Our team adopted an unconventional approach to creating personas for this project. We wanted to present personas alongside their corresponding insights, so we developed a format that suited our specific requirements.
These two personas are formatted as follows:
The focus of this project phase was to understand real-life interactions of Technicians and Physicians. For each persona, interactions were divided into four categories:
Processor-Related
Scope-Related
Associated Software Interactions
Associated Hardware Interactions
All these interactions were plotted on a scale from "Needs" to "Desires".
Product Comparison Studies
We performed a detailed comparative study between multiple competing companies with similar products and this helped us understand, what existing features are relevant and important to the users and to the overall process, as well as gave us a starting point to prepare our Interview documents for technicians and physicians.
Beyond the Screen: Cross-Functional Alignment
While designing the endoscopy interface was the core of my role, the true success of this project relied on breaking down organizational silos. One of my most critical contributions toward the end of this project was acting as the central hub for insights across four distinct teams: UX Research, R&D, Marketing, and Product Management.
By systematically comparing our user findings against R&D's technical constraints, Marketing's market positioning, and PM's strategic roadmap, I was able to identify overlapping priorities and resolve conflicting requirements. This final synthesis ensured that our UX decisions weren't just user-centric, but fully aligned with the broader business strategy.
Confidentiality Notice
The content presented in this case study has been shared with permission and reflects work completed under a non-disclosure agreement. Certain details, including client name, proprietary data, and business-sensitive information, have been omitted or anonymised to honour that agreement. The research insights, design decisions, and process documented here are my own and are shared solely for portfolio purposes. For further information about this project or to verify my involvement, please contact me directly at vidhiraghvani.ux@gmail.com.