Requisition System (AMBIS)
Case Study
Overview
AMBIS is NIAID’s institute-wide requisition system used to submit, process, and fulfill purchase requests. The system us used to acquire a wide gamut of products, from office and lab equipment to software and maintenance contracts, conference fees, and more. It also aims to assist users navigate a myriad of government requisition procedures and regulations.
As often is the case with many other internal applications, AMBIS was designed to address a very specific organizational need, which, in this case, was to automate a paper-based process. The application’s functionality was always the key and its usability or appearance took a back seat. Initially developed as a desktop application, it was later converted to a web application.
This project’s goal was to completely overhaul an outdated system in an effort to address, among other things, performance and usability issues, reduce application complexity, and simplify user experience.
CLIENT:
NIAID, NIH
YEAR:
2018-Ongoing
Laying the Groundwork
In addition to a web-based system that handles order placement and management, there was also a desktop component that handled system administration functions. It was decided that the first phase of the project would only address the administration module, which will later become a part of the complete system. This phase was also used to test new back and front-end technologies, as well as new application layout, styles, iconography, and other common UI elements, all of which will be included in the final phase of the project.
New Design & Future Plans
The new UI design is almost finalized. However, the scope of the project has changed with new features added affecting some of the workflow. Fortunately, in anticipation of something like this happening—requirements changes is a common occurrence—I designed the UI system in such a way that only minor changes will need to be done on the front-end.
