ROVi

ROVi research search interface on an iPad for Regeneron scientists
CLIENT

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

ROLE

Design Lead

UX Researcher

Product Strategist

YEAR

2023

SERVICES

Product Design

UX Research

Interaction Design

Product Strategy

Enterprise Software

01

Context

02

Problem

03

Approach

04

The Work

05

Outcome

06

Reflection

/ Context

Context

01

Cutting research search time from 45 minutes to under 2 for Regeneron scientists.

Cutting research search time from 45 minutes to under 2 for Regeneron scientists.

/ Problem

Problem

02

Regeneron's scientists were losing 2–3 hours a day hunting for research data across 12+ disconnected systems. Experimental results, genomic sequences, compounds, literature and internal docs all lived in different places, each with its own search and its own login. Finding anything felt like archaeology. In drug discovery, every lost day costs time, money and, eventually, patients.

Regeneron's scientists were losing 2–3 hours a day hunting for research data across 12+ disconnected systems. Experimental results, genomic sequences, compounds, literature and internal docs all lived in different places, each with its own search and its own login. Finding anything felt like archaeology. In drug discovery, every lost day costs time, money and, eventually, patients.

/ Approach

Approach

03

Scientists weren't looking for data. They were looking for answers. So the goal wasn't a better search engine, it was a perception shift: from "information is buried" to "information finds me." Instead of buying an enterprise search tool or integrating one department at a time, we built a purpose-made interface that treats every system as a single source. ROVi knows where to look, so scientists don't have to.

Scientists weren't looking for data. They were looking for answers. So the goal wasn't a better search engine, it was a perception shift: from "information is buried" to "information finds me." Instead of buying an enterprise search tool or integrating one department at a time, we built a purpose-made interface that treats every system as a single source. ROVi knows where to look, so scientists don't have to.

/ The Work

The Work

04

RESEARCH

The insight that changed everything: trust was the hidden barrier. Scientists didn't believe one system would return complete results, so they searched everywhere anyway. I watched one researcher spend 90 minutes looking for an internal study, give up, and design a redundant $50K experiment instead.

ONE SEARCH BOX

A single search box told users they no longer needed to know how the data was organized. I worked with the data scientists on a relevance model that ranks experiments, compounds, papers and documents together in one list.

PERCEIVED SPEED

Perception of speed matters more than actual speed. Streaming results instead of showing a spinner made a five-second search feel faster than a competitor's two-second one.

TRUST THROUGH PREVIEWS

ROVi doesn't just point to information, it shows it. Inline previews let scientists judge relevance without leaving the page, which is what finally earned the trust of skeptical power users.

RESULTS

Within three months, 390 of 500 scientists used ROVi as their main search tool, running 2,000+ searches a day. It prevented at least three duplicate $50K+ studies, and leadership now uses it as the proof of concept for future unified data work.

/ Outcome

Outcome

05

96%

Faster search

78%

Scientist adoption in 3 months

500+

Researcher hours saved monthly

“ROVi didn't just speed up information access. It changed how our scientists think about what's possible.”

Head of Research Technology, Regeneron

/ Reflection

Reflection

06

Perception design isn't just about what users see. It's about what an organization believes is possible. ROVi worked because it changed the story from "data access is hard" to "we made the complexity invisible." If I did it again, I'd bring power users in earlier and push for deeper analytics from day one. Trust with experts and clear ROI data would have sped everything up.

Perception design isn't just about what users see. It's about what an organization believes is possible. ROVi worked because it changed the story from "data access is hard" to "we made the complexity invisible." If I did it again, I'd bring power users in earlier and push for deeper analytics from day one. Trust with experts and clear ROI data would have sped everything up.

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