deCODEme Genome Browser (demo account)

What if you could see your genome DNA like sound tracks in mixing software? What if you wanted to listen to music, but could only play it in mixing software? With deCODEme’s new genome browser, now officially launched, you can.

Genome Browser demo video

I previewed the Genome Browser in Reykjavík a few months ago, and my response was then as it is now: “No.” Now, I like deCODE, I love this industry, and I want people to be excited. So, I get a bit overheated when I see something with so much potential grow in the wrong direction, like some geeky math genius with basketball dreams. Put that bling where it belongs, son: in the bank, not in your teeth.

and… that’s deCODEme’s Genome Browser: right bling, wrong places.

The Bling:

Genome Browser is the best, most accessible, most personally relevant genome browsing software today. I can seamlessly zoom from chromosome, to gene, to individual nucleotide sequence. I can see where deCODEme SNPs are geographically aligned in the genome. I can search for a term, like “CCR5,” and Genome Browser zooms to results in real-time. And, I can cross-reference against the top three genomic public databases. Very cool.

Similar Products. Note that these are scary, ugly science tools:

• UCSC Genome Browser
  
• NCBI Reference SNP
• Ensembl SNPView
• NCBI Sequence Viewer
  
• NCBI Map Viewer

The Teeth:

So who are the users of Genome Browser?

Scientists? I can’t reference it. I can’t link to it (because of Java). It doesn’t have the technical depth to be a better scientific tool. And, I can’t import or export tracks —my own data.

Amusing, but not useful.

A tool for casual enthusiasts? I have to wait several minutes to install Java and wait fifteen seconds to load the application? (waiting is bad) I have to read instructions because the interface isn’t self-descriptive and intuitive? (reading is bad) Where are the hyperlinks? Where are the scrollbars? Why can I do something annoying, like drag rows to arbitrary positions, but I can’t do something useful, like click-drag zoom directly in tracks? Why is there a mostly empty row for every deCODEme phenotype instead of a compact, single row?

Confusing, and not useful.

Ultimately, deCODEme’s genome browser is like an average modern linux application: written for its programmers’ gratification, not for its users’. That’s something not even the shiniest transparency effects can fix.

The Bank

Genome Browser has value, but it’s misplaced in a bad interface. This can be fixed:

1. Replace the Java application with AJAX and/or Flash and make Genome Browser work like a regular web app. UI Design is not a common scitech industry expertise, but one can do well just by avoiding mistakes. Learn from Google: keep it simple, fast, and useful. All the brushed-gray gradients in the world won’t make you Apple.
2. Fix the track system for phenotypes to work in a single row. Avoid vertical scrolling.
3. Label all terms with tooltips and hyperlinks. Avoid noisy jargon. For example, replace “known Genes from UCSC” with “Genes.” (details like this belong in documentation)
4. Keep symbols consistent. For example, SNPs and sequences look the same, but SNPs are diploid threads, sequences are haploid pairs.
5. Seriously consider an “Import SNPs,” plugin, or API feature.
6. Buy some pizza, set up tables and laptops in the university yard, and watch students use Genome Browser and deCODEme. It will be good PR, and you will learn what users want.

Conclusion

Eventually, hopefully, someone at deCODEme, 23andMe, or Navigenics is going to realize that their product is a crude, disposable prototype for cheap full genome sequencing, and that their actual job is market finding, not product building. Thus, personal genome products TODAY aren’t the REAL business, they’re just early loss-leaders for building company brand and expertise.

So, if I were the CEO of deCODEme (or 23andMe), I wouldn’t budget a penny for any deCODEme project, including new releases for the deCODEme Genome Browser, unless my team could tell me in three sentences how that project would:

• Help discover and develop the market for consumer genomics
• Be relevant to the company in five to ten years
• Give the company an advantage over its competitors once the market is understood

I am having a difficult time composing those three sentences for this release of deCODEme Genome Browser as it is now.