Cybershuttle
OVERVIEW
Cybershuttle is a powerful cloud platform that connects biophysicists' local devices to remote supercomputers, unifying their entire research process—from experiment setup to simulation, visualization, and result analysis under one hood.
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Cybershuttle is a collaborative project between Indiana University, biophysicists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and several other universities.
Timeline
3 months (May 2023 - Aug 2023)
Team members
2 UX Designers; 3 Developers; and a Project Manager
My contribution
I led UX research (Primary and secondary research), ideation and UI design efforts (Low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes) to create an intuitive experience, addressing workflow challenges faced by biophysicists.
THE PROBLEM
“It’s like assembling furniture with instructions from five different manuals” - that’s how one biophysicist described their research workflow.
For decades, biophysicists have explored life at the molecular level — decoding how cells breathe, move, and evolve. But their day-to-day reality wasn’t nearly as elegant.
Their research workflow involved a patchwork of disconnected applications, legacy software, local simulations, cloud interfaces, and shared lab devices. Preparing molecules, setting up simulations, visualizing data, and running analysis. Every step required them to switch platforms, lose time, and risk errors.
MOLECULE PREP
BIOPHYSICISTS’ COMPUTER
BIOPHYSICISTS’ COMPUTER
SUPERCOMPUTER
EXPERIMENT SETUP
RUN SIMULATION
VISUALIZATION
ANALYSIS
THE JOURNEY
As designers, we weren’t handed a map - we had to make our own. With limited time and resources, we immersed ourselves in the biophysicists’ research ecosystem.
We studied requirement documents, reverse-engineered user flows from legacy software, and mapped out their fragmented journey.
KEY LEARNINGS
The biophysicists’ fragmented journey revealed that they struggle with switching between tools, lack a clear view of their workflow, and lose time during file transfers. The process feels disconnected, making it harder to stay on track or fix issues quickly.
After decoding the fragmented workflow, we knew the only way forward was to listen. So, we stepped into the shoes of biophysicists, not as designers, but as curious observers.
We outlined key questions and guided open-ended conversations that walked through their entire research process - from selecting input parameters to analyzing final results.
KEY LEARNINGS
Biophysicists face major hurdles in tracking simulation status, managing multiple projects efficiently, and working across fragmented tools — leading to lost time, missed issues, and broken research flows.
EARLY WIREFRAMES
With a clear understanding of the gaps, we shifted from listening to shaping — turning every frustration we heard into building blocks for a simpler, smarter experience.
We translated insights into low-fidelity sketches, focusing on untangling workflows and connecting scattered tasks into a seamless journey — bringing visibility, flow, and control to the research process.
FINAL SOLUTION
From fragmented steps to a connected journey, the interface was designed to let biophysicists move through their research work with greater ease and clarity.
Our high-fidelity designs focused on reducing friction across the research process — helping users stay immersed in discovery instead of getting lost in technical hurdles.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The Manage Projects screen makes it easier for biophysicists to handle multiple research projects, check the progress for each one of them, and manage the team members handling the respective projects. Here, they can also add new projects or manage previous ones.
TRACKING SIMULATIONS/EXPERIMENTS
The Job Monitor screen gives a comprehensive view of all the simulations (or experiments) running in different projects (or protocols). Their status, storage and computation level is also available for effective resource management by the biophysicists supervising their respective projects.
CONNECTING TO THE SUPERCOMPUTER (1/3)
Selecting an HPC (High Processing Compute) Provider serves as the first step in connecting to a remote supercomputing device. Biophysicists can connect to their choice of HPC Provider to seamlessly and remotely connect to a supercomputer appropriate for their computing needs.
CONNECTING TO THE SUPERCOMPUTER (2/3)
After the choice of HPC Provider is selected, the biophysicist is prompted to enter their credentials to securely connect to the supercomputing service. This ensures that the supercomputer is utilized by an authorized personnel.
CONNECTING TO THE SUPERCOMPUTER (3/3)
The last step in connecting to the supercomputer is selecting the project of interest for which the experiments have to be run on the supercomputer. The interface shows the projects that the biophysicist is a part of, making their selection easy.
SELECTING THE SUPERCOMPUTER
The user (here, biophysicist) can select the type of supercomputer they want to utilize for their experiments. Data such as “Available storage”, “Available compute units”, and “Time remaining” help them decide the best choice for the kind of experiments that biophysicists want to execute.
MONITORING SUPERCOMPUTER USAGE
In addition to helping biophysicists select the best supercomputer for their computing needs, they can also monitor the supercomputer resources used by their team, and get an overview of the resource allocation and optimize the computing consumption wherever necessary.
