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Message Labeling System and Cell Culture Media Container GIBCO is a name trusted by life science researchers around the world for the products they use to culture cells in their labs.  At Life Technologies Corp., the managers of the GIBCO brand were thinking about how to grow their business.  The cell culture market is competitive, and they wanted a way to make their products uniquely useful and valuable to their customers.  They recognized that doing so would require gaining a clearer understanding and connection with customers.  The company came to IDEO to collaborate on improving the overall end-user experience. For the project, IDEO studied the complete user journey for GIBCO products, from ordering and receiving to using, disposing, and reordering media. The team interviewed and observed 57 laboratory researchers in the US, Germany, UK, and Scotland and spoke with 25 stakeholders in the GIBCO business. From the myriad of opportunities for ordering, storing, labeling, transporting, pippetting, and disposing materials, the GIBCO and IDEO team selected two for further exploration: revolutionizing labeling and enhancing the primary container. The bottle designed by IDEO represents a radical departure from traditional media containers. Ergonomics under the culture hood, safety, and convenience considerations drove the design of the new bottle. The key features of the bottle provide solutions to the challenges observed during field research with customers: improved ergonomics of the “under-the-hood” workflow; superior handling and storage; easier identification and additional room for supplements. Not surprisingly, mistakes and their consequences in cell culture research can be costly. Contamination of cell culture media, small mistakes done while pipetting, and other normal human errors can result in years of lost work. Understanding this, the design team worked to create a more ergonomic bottle, with an angled neck, larger mouth, and compact footprint. These features completely change the researchers’ interaction with their tools and decrease the likelihood of contamination, while allowing better handling and storage. To further minimize risk, the GIBCO team tested the impact of design changes on cell-culture packaging by staging the development to allow market testing of a new labeling concept before a full-rollout. IDEO redesigned the labeling system so that color-coded labels and caps could be organized by product family, enabling researchers to find their media at a glance on any shelf, in any type of storage system. The redesigned labels and caps also offer space for written notes, in addition to clearly communicating essential information such as expiration date, storage temperature, and biohazards in an organized and consistent manner. The impact of the new labels was immediate and surprisingly strong.  The new design stood out in retail environments like Supply Centers and the Invitrogen website.  But even more importantly, the new label system fit seamlessly into the daily workflow of the researchers, minimizing searching and errors, while improving clarity and confidence with the product. Within months after launching the new labeling system, GIBCO saw a double-digit sales increase in a market that is traditionally reluctant to change media and cell culture habits. The innovative approach to supporting users has enabled the GIBCO brand to sustain a sales growth rate greater than the overall market, and in March 2009, the bottle won an AmeriStar medical packaging award for its “groundbreaking” design, which improves the handling of cell cultures. http://www.ideo.com/work/labeling-system-and-cell-culture-media-container-gibco-product-portfolio/