Disclaimer: This case study does not provide medical advice. The user interfaces and terminology presented on this page are for non-medical informational purposes only. They are solely intended to convey my work process and output. The content shown here may not match what has been implemented on the da Vinci Surgical System and it should not be used for any training purposes.

Project overview

Summary

Intuitive launched the P8 (patch 8) software update on its flagship da Vinci Xi surgical robot to enhance user experience across four different screens on its system. The update improved the surgeon’s console dashboard, streamlining controls and enhancing the visibility of key indicators. Additionally, the surgical staff’s touchscreen received an upgraded information architecture, allowing the surgical team to navigate and interact with it more intuitively. Lastly, electrosurgical setting controls were upgraded for easier application, and error messages were made clearer to support faster troubleshooting.

My role

As the design lead, I was fully responsible for driving the product direction, UX strategy, and information architecture for the P8 software update. I played a pivotal role in managing timelines, creating a new design system, and ensuring cross-functional collaboration across various teams. Internally I worked closely with UX teammates integrating their features into the update, human factors researchers, software engineers, system analysts, clinical development engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, product marketing and technical publications. Externally I solicited feedback customers like surgeons, surgical staff, and hospital technicians to ensure we were properly addressing user needs.

I led design sprints, facilitated design reviews, and created prototypes for both formative and summative testing as part of the FDA approval process. Additionally, I authored critical documentation, including product manuals, specifications, and QA test documents for engineering. My leadership ensured seamless collaboration and the successful delivery of a user-centered solution that met regulatory requirements and clinical needs.

Impact

Although I left the company shortly after the P8 software update launch, the project performed exceptionally well during both formative and summative testing for FDA approval, receiving very high scores across key usability and safety metrics. The testing involved real surgeons and surgical staff, whose feedback validated the improvements in information architecture, ergonomic design, and error messaging. These updates were anticipated to reduce the risk of surgical errors and enhance efficiency in the operating room. My leadership in developing a scalable design system and fostering collaboration across cross-functional teams ensured that the product was well-positioned for success. Given the positive feedback during testing, I am confident the update has significantly improved both the user experience and patient outcomes.

— KEEP SCROLLING IF YOU WANT TO GET INTO THE WEEDS —

Process and approach

2. Strategy and planning

After synthesizing my research insights and leading a brainstorming session, I led the cross-functional group of stakeholders to align on a list of goals that the software update needed to achieve. These goals primarily focused on accommodating new functionality, improving organization, and enhancing ergonomics and clarity. We also had in-depth discussions about which members of the operating room staff should have access to the newly introduced features. For instance, we debated whether the surgical staff should be able to save preferred electrosurgical settings to an account or if that capability should remain exclusive to the surgeon’s console. The table to the right illustrates how these goals impacted four different screens in the system.

3. Information architecture, low-fidelity design and formative testing

With the agreed-upon goals in place, I began developing the information architecture and wireframes to explore how we could organize the new features and streamline the content structure without focusing on high-fidelity visuals. I conducted several design reviews, both cross-functional and within the UX team, and presented to dozens of stakeholders during the project’s official preliminary design review to gather comprehensive feedback. Additionally, I created an interactive click-through prototype on a touchscreen tablet, building a foam-core housing to mimic the look and feel of the surgeon’s console armrest. This prototype was used in formative testing with surgeons, allowing me to capture valuable insights and feedback on the design.

4. High fidelity design, software implementation and summative testing

Using insights from formative testing, I developed high-fidelity mockups and clickthrough prototypes for the touchscreens on the surgeon console, vision cart, and electrosurgical generator. I led several informal design reviews with these new mockups, gathering feedback from key stakeholders, including human factors researchers, software engineers, clinical development engineers, electrical engineers, and product marketing teams. Once I reached a solid iteration, I presented the designs in a formal internal design review with cross-functional teammates and senior leadership, securing official approval for software implementation.

After receiving approval, I collaborated with the software engineering lead to create specification and QA testing documents. We worked closely throughout the development phase, regularly testing the software to ensure it met the necessary design and functional requirements. Once development was complete, we moved to summative testing, a critical FDA requirement. The final interface underwent rigorous human factors testing with multiple sets of real doctors and surgical staff to ensure safety and usability. Ultimately, all critical user journeys passed the summative testing phase, meeting the FDA’s stringent standards.

Touchscreens AFTER redesign

Touchscreens BEFORE redesign (for reference/comparison)

5. Documentation

The next step involved collaborating with the technical publications team to provide assets and clearly explain the new functionality introduced in the da Vinci robot software update for the user manual. My contributions were extensive and meticulously detailed, ensuring the content was thorough and easy to understand. As a result of my efforts, the technical publications team recognized my contributions by awarding me an internal accolade for excellence in documentation support.

6. Launch and post-launch analysis

With the software and documentation finalized, hospitals were notified about the update and began installing it. I left Intuitive shortly after the P8 software update rollout began, but had I stayed, I would have led customer outreach efforts to assess how the new functionality was performing in the field. This would have involved gathering feedback from end-users and analyzing usage metrics, such as system logs, to identify which features were being interacted with the most and which were underutilized. This analysis would have helped us understand what worked well and where there might be opportunities for further improvement.

Feature deep dive

Scrollable and expandable quick setting panel

The expandable, scrollable quick settings panel allowed for greater flexibility by housing buttons that either triggered actions (e.g., take a photo), toggled settings (e.g., hide/show non-essential notifications), or opened overlays with more controls (e.g., audio settings). In the previous dashboard UI, all elements were statically positioned, which posed a challenge due to limited screen space. Adding new buttons required substantial UI redesigns. The expandable panel solved this issue by allowing additional features to be seamlessly integrated in future software updates without the need to overhaul the structure of the UI.

Each quick setting featured an icon/label combination that reflected one of three states:

• Transparent icon / Opaque label: The feature was available but turned off.

• Opaque icon / Opaque label: The feature was available and turned on.

• Transparent icon / Transparent label: The feature was unavailable or not ready for use.

Additionally, the updated UI leveraged larger graphics for faster comprehension and to reduce issues related to text translation. This improvement enhanced usability and clarity, especially in high-stakes operating environments.

Overlay controls

Moving UI elements such as sliders and buttons into overlays freed up a substantial amount of screen space for additional features. This also resulted in a cleaner, less cluttered dashboard. To ensure users didn’t have to access overlays to check a feature’s status—such as the brightness level—we added dynamic indicator graphics directly to the buttons. This allowed users to quickly view the current state of key features at a glance from the dashboard.

Enlarged UI elements

New instrument specific features could be accommodated and surgeon’s could more easily tap their intended target because the armpod and button sizes were increased.

Enhancing accessibility to frequently used but deeply buried features

Our data revealed that certain features, while not used frequently overall, are toggled on and off repeatedly during the procedures in which they are utilized. One such feature is the Firefly toggle, which allows surgeons to highlight key landmarks in tissue by causing an injected dye to fluoresce. Although not all surgeries require this technology, when it is used, surgeons often need to activate and deactivate it multiple times. Previously, accessing Firefly required navigating through the more comprehensive settings tab, where it was buried. As part of the redesign, quick access buttons were added to the dashboard and instruments tab, making Firefly and similar features far more accessible.

Robot arm exchange simplification for co-surgery scenarios

The da Vinci system enables two consoles to be connected simultaneously, allowing two surgeons to collaborate on a procedure. Dual console surgery can be used for training between teachers and students or for two peers working together. In addition to the feature that lets surgeons transfer control of individual instrument arms, there is also the ability to transfer control of all arms at once. Previously, this function was labeled "SWAP ALL." After the redesign, it was updated to "GIVE ALL" or "TAKE ALL," depending on the proportion of instruments the surgeon was controlling. The logic behind how instrument groups are exchanged was also refined to enhance usability and better accommodate the primary use cases we observed.

Enabling iterative experimentation with power limit energy settings

The introduction of power limit controls was likely to be unfamiliar to many surgeons, making it essential for the UI to support experimentation with settings, allowing doctors to find what works best for their procedures. In electrosurgery, power limit, mode, and effect settings often need to be fine-tuned in tandem to achieve the desired outcome. To streamline this process, I designed a UI that consolidated all the related controls in one place. This setup enabled surgeons and operating room staff to adjust multiple settings rapidly without the inefficiencies of constantly opening and closing windows. Surgeons could request iterative adjustments while actively evaluating the impact of the settings on tissue during surgery.

Additionally, the UI featured a real-time visualization of power output (see video), displaying both peak and average readings. This provided surgeons with immediate feedback, helping them understand how power output related to potential side effects, such as smoke or tissue charring.

Given the potential of this UI to improve clinical outcomes, I rigorously tested it to ensure it achieved a high level of usability. I developed static mockups and interactive prototypes, including simulations of fluctuating power output for user evaluation. We took the prototype to hospitals for feedback from operating room staff, invited doctors to our office for hands-on testing, and held numerous design reviews with internal stakeholders to refine the design.

Accomodating for energy presets and power limit controls on the surgeon console

If surgeons prefer to adjust electrosurgical settings themselves, they can do so directly from the touchscreen on their console, rather than relying on the surgical staff to make changes on the generator, which is often out of the surgeon’s immediate reach. The challenge I faced was designing for the console's limited screen size, just 5 x 3.75 inches. With numerous UI elements that needed to fit into this small space, I had to carefully prioritize which features should be immediately accessible and which could be revealed after a tap.

Two features, power limit controls and presets, didn’t need to be displayed at all times on the control panel. To manage space efficiently, I designed the UI so that the power limit sliders would replace the presets when accessed. In my interactive prototype, these elements smoothly animated into position, ensuring the transition felt natural and minimized user disorientation as the layout changed.

Applying energy presets on the surgeon console

Applying electrosurgical settings is a critical process that, if done incorrectly, can pose serious safety risks. For instance, if a surgeon expects a low power setting but it is actually set too high, unintended tissue damage could occur.

Before the software update, these settings—of which there are several—had to be manually applied one by one. In some cases, surgical staff would refer to the surgeon’s preferred settings written on paper and taped to the vision cart, increasing the potential for errors. With the addition of power limits, which introduced even more settings to manage, it became essential to develop a safer, more efficient way to apply surgeons’ preferred electrosurgical settings all at once.

To address this, customizable electrosurgical presets were introduced. Each surgeon can now save up to three presets associated with their account on the console. Similar to how radio stations are preset in a car, surgeons can save their preferred settings once they are satisfied with them. They can even configure one of these presets to apply automatically upon login, ensuring they have their ideal settings ready as soon as they sign in to the console.

Let’s connect

Interested in discussing the challenges and opportunities of UX across both physical and digital interfaces, and how this project might connect to yours? Reach out!