Chai Brand Overview
I was Chai’s founding designer, growing with the company throughout its 8+ year run.
A simple branding and fundraising deck project evolved into a Design Director role as the company steadily expanded and needed design solutions for its software, packaging, and beyond.
Primary Roles
Design Director/Founding Designer
Product Design, UI/UX, Web Design, Advertising, Design Systems
Additional Contributions
Copywriting, Packaging Design, Photo Editing, Presentation Design, Trade Show Materials, Document Formatting
Desktop App
Chai’s flagship product is the Open qPCR thermocycler. I designed its cross-platform app experience; matching the feature set of more expensive competitors and making even the most complex experiments simple to design and run.
Built-In LCD App
To make the Open qPCR a standalone lab anywhere in the world, we needed to make the full desktop experience on its built-in touchscreen.
We embraced the relatively low-resolution screen and designed for high-legibility and easy operation in challenging conditions.
Web Design
My secondary responsibility was to design and maintain Chai’s web presence. This included design, copywriting, information architecture, and development support.
Hardware Advertising
The Open qPCR is marketed to a very broad audience. A mix of brand awareness and targeted, solution-based campaigns helped expand our customer base.
Consumables Advertising
Chai master mixes’ versatility gives them an even broader target audience than the hardware. That presented an opportunity to show less traditional ads that make an impact and stave off ad-blindness.
Packaging Design
Chai master mixes’ versatility gives them an even broader target audience than the hardware. That presented an opportunity to show less traditional ads that make an impact and stave off ad-blindness.
Document Layout & Formatting
Like Chai boxes, our manuals are designed to be found easily in dark or cluttered lab environments.
Results & Takeaways
I’m proud of what we accomplished, and that we delivered on our promise of Real-Time PCR solutions for the real world.
Beyond expanding my technical skill set, my time at Chai refined my design process. Working iteratively at low-fidelity and maintaining buy-in from all stakeholders throughout the process makes life easier for everyone.
