1. 1 User-Centered Design at the USPTO: Application to Patent IT Modernization Marti Hearst Chief IT Strategist, USPTO May 23, 2011

2. 2 Patents End-to-End IT A new IT system being designed with the Patents Corps for the Patents Corps. We are doing the following in parallel: New Software Architecture User Research design IT right Process Reengineering

3. 3 June ‘10Jul-Sep ‘10Oct-Jan ‘11 Business Goals: Survey (online or paper) Tasks Analysis: Interviews, Focus Groups, and Online Input Iterative Testing Of Mocked-up Interfaces Interviews, Focus Groups, and Online Input User-Centered Design Timeline

4. 4 Submitted Art: Current View

5. 5 Core Attributes (entire office)  Speed  Simple / Easy to use  Smart and Specialized Search Tools  Well-integrated Interfaces  Accurate and Timely Alerts / Notifications  Flexible Configuration / User Customizable  Data Validation / Auto-fill  Responsive to Changes in Processes  Promotes Collaboration and Communication

6. 6 New Core Functionality  Text: Documents will be represented as structured text, rather than as TIFF images. Allows for cut and paste, resizing the text, and viewing the documents in single column mode. Allows for highly structured text objects, such as claims.  Automated Validation: Information will be linked together allowing for automated verification; many checks are done manually will be automatically checked, with manual verification. Forms will in most cases be auto-populated based on the work that people are doing, rather than requiring repeated copying.

7. 7 New Core Functionality  Annotation Creating, Gathering, and Re-use: Annotations can be made anywhere (on references, office actions, claims, lists of retrieval results, and so on), and shareable and reusable.  Shareable information: Examiners and managers will be able to store, refer to, and share information such as synonym sets, search results, and notes which have been useful in the past. Examiners, managers, and technical support staff will be able to share and view the same information, where appropriate.  Highly Customizable Design Users can tailor the arrangement of windows and tools, and save layouts based on which view (home, work, laptop) and what action they are doing.

8. 8 New Core Functionality  References to non-patent literature Will use pre-stored bibliographic metadata, so in most cases examiners will not need to type in the bibliographic information. References will be immediately viewable and searchable.  Search Tools: Many different advanced tools will be linked into the system Will be tightly integrated with annotations and writing office actions. Will be tightly integrated with digital locker (saved and shared queries, synonyms, etc) Will treat bibliographic references as objects to re-use  Centralized Information Search results, notes, collections, will be stored on the services and accessible from any machine.

9. 9 Design Process  Based on user research, wrote a SOW describing desired new functionality  Bidders presented an initial design  Three UI design firms were selected  They refined their designs working with examiners and managers, from Nov – Jan 14.  The entire Patent Corps was invited to evaluate these three designs online Jan 18-31.

10. 10 Design A

11. 11 Design A

12. 12 Design D

13. 13 Design D

14. 14 Design D

15. Design K

16. 16 Evaluation Process  Each vendor made an external website with: A clickable prototype (not full functionality) Videos illustrating the functionality Feedback tool for commenting on specific features  We made an internal website with: An overview introduction Links to each vendors’ landing page A survey for each vendor’s design A summary survey for ranking the designs

17. 17 Evaluation Results  Designs A and D were tied in preference  Overall scores were highly positive  The two vendors are working together on a combined design. Sprints are underway Designs are continually tested with end users, and revised as needed.

18. 18 Summary  User-centered design means asking the end users what they want and designing to that. This is as opposed to letting software engineers decide what to do in a vaccuum.  It allows the end users to play a critical role in the design of their new tools. Promotes buy-in when transition time comes.  We’ve shown it can be done at a large scale in government.