Scientific Computational Platform
Leading a design pod that grew from maintaining a compute platform to shaping its vision and roadmap.
Domain
Life-science R&D
Role
Design lead
Team
4-person design pod, grown from 2
Status
In progress
Context
SWEL is a compute platform for small- and large-molecule research teams. After a compute run, researchers pull results into a spreadsheet and decide by hand whether to continue or stop the work.
We are redesigning the platform so researchers can find, run and review workflows in one place, without coding. My pod joined to maintain the product; our role grew from maintenance to shaping the product vision and roadmap.
Foundation
Before adding new features, we cleared the design debt we inherited and aligned design and engineering on one UI framework. New work now builds on a single, consistent system instead of one-off screens.
Research
I planned and facilitated the platform’s first research program, with three colleagues supporting on notes, timing and tech.
Wrote the discussion guide: work patterns and tools, assumptions to verify, and validation of the end-to-end journey map.
Ran 8 user interviews mapping the end-to-end journey.
Defined primary and secondary personas to settle conflicting needs.
Presented the readout to the product team myself. It now shapes the roadmap.
Delivery
The redesigned features are handed off to engineering.
To move faster from design to code, I set up an AI-assisted design-to-development workflow for the pod.
What’s next
We are now designing the platform’s AI Copilot and workflow automation, the next step toward helping researchers decide what to do with their results, not only run the compute.
Case study in progress
Case study in progress
© 2026 Anton Shinelin
Florida