Ultrasound
In a third-party comparative study, 82% of participants preferred ACUSON Sequoia, which recorded 96% task success.
ACUSON Sequoia & Origin
From console controls to cardiology workflows
Sonographers adjust the image while holding the probe and watching the scan. We worked across the console, touchscreen, and monitor to make the systems easier to learn and operate during an examination.
I began on ACUSON Sequoia, building working prototypes to explore how sonographers could operate a simplified console. On ACUSON Origin, I led the cardiac interface from research through implementation, carrying that work from the physical panel into the touchscreen and diagnostic monitor. For Origin's cardiac research, I also designed a study comparing a trackpad with a trackball; its results led the team to replace the trackpad, one of the platform's key features, with a trackball.
In a third-party comparative study by Macadamian Technologies, 82% of participants preferred Sequoia over competing systems, and it recorded a 96% task success rate.
Working across the product team
I worked closely with engineers, product managers, clinical subject matter experts, and clinical sales specialists, alongside Human Factors colleagues who conducted formative and summative usability evaluations under IEC 62366.
Much of what I learned about ultrasound came through formal interviews and informal conversations with our clinical specialists. Before changing a control or a menu, I needed them to walk me through why it existed in the first place and what an examination demanded at that moment.
On Sequoia, I worked on the early concept exploration with UX designers Emin Sinani and Xinran Fan. On Origin, I led the interface design effort over roughly a year and a half, working alongside fellow designer Aishwarya Suresh.
ACUSON Sequoia: rethinking the console
Earlier consoles carried more than 70 physical keys, knobs, and sliders. Experienced sonographers knew many of those positions by muscle memory, operating them without looking down. We had to figure out which functions needed to stay on physical hardware, which belonged on the touchscreen, and how to organize both around the flow of an exam.
I built interactive prototypes in Flash, Processing, and Java so sonographers could test different splits between the panel and touchscreen, and compare trackpad and trackball concepts, while the hardware architecture was still open. Mapping those controls against exam stages produced a control-allocation framework that guided Sequoia and was carried forward by designers on subsequent ultrasound systems.
From a keyboard and dense physical bank to a touchscreen paired with streamlined physical controls · Images: Siemens Healthineers
Sonographers operate without looking away from the image, so the controls that stayed on the panel had to be easy to find by feel.
ACUSON Origin: designing for cardiac imaging
Cardiac imaging places different demands on the machine: capturing moving clips of a beating heart, selecting frames within the cardiac cycle, dropping precise measurement calipers, and assembling a structured report. For Origin, I organized a research program across 12 clinical sites in Germany, China, and the United States to test control-panel concepts, touchscreen workflows, and input devices in practice. I also managed the program's budget, which meant deciding which studies we could run, and where.
By then, Sequoia was well along in development, and a flat trackpad in place of the traditional trackball was one of the platform's key features. Cardiac exams depend on many precise measurements, so I designed a study comparing the two, combining standardized Fitts' Law pointing tasks with cardiac tracing and marking. Some clinicians liked tracing contours on the trackpad, but selecting small targets was slower and more error-prone. We shared the results with the wider team, and after deliberation the decision was made to replace the trackpad with a trackball.
From there, I worked with engineering and clinical colleagues to translate legacy functions into feature maps, interaction state specifications, and harmonized layouts across the console and monitor.
Sequoia in comparative testing
Beyond preference and task success, Sequoia received the highest ease-of-use rating among the tested platforms (4.54/5), and its System Usability Scale score of 86 placed it in the 95th percentile against a broader usability benchmark.
Those numbers describe Sequoia as a complete system and reflect the wider team's work. The platform also received the Red Dot Industrial Design Award.
Macadamian Technologies · Sequoia comparative usability study
clinical context
Designing around the work of an examination
Operating while scanning
During an examination, a sonographer holds the transducer against the patient with one hand while keeping their eyes on the diagnostic monitor. Adjusting depth, switching imaging modes, or freezing a frame has to happen around that posture. If a control is placed poorly, reaching for it means shifting pressure on the probe or looking away from the anatomy on screen.
Continue the case study
The full account follows the input-device studies, clinical research, and design of the controls and screens.
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