In 2009, we added six tools to 23andMe Labs, our technology sandbox where we showcase experimental features. In case you haven’t played around with them yet, here’s a brief review:

Health Labs

Reynolds Risk Score
This tool calculates a 10-year risk for heart-attack using information including cholesterol and blood pressure.

ABO Blood Type
There actually are more than 25 different blood groups that go into determining your particular “type,” but you’re probably most familiar with the blood group determined by the ABO gene. This is the gene that determines whether you will be type O, A, B, or AB.

Genetic Weight Calculator
See how much of your weight you can blame on your genes (not your jeans)!

Ancestry Labs

Haplogroup Tree Mutation MapperThis feature shows you which particular mutations in a person’s mitochondrial DNA (maternal ancestry) or Y chromosome (paternal ancestry) were used to determine their haplogroup assignment.

Family Inheritance: Advanced
Compare your DNA, bit by bit, to see what segments you share with close and distant family.

Native American Ancestry Finder
Search for evidence of Native American ancestry in a person’s genome.

Customers who have purchased the Complete Edition of our service have access to both Health and Ancestry Labs. Customers with either the Health or Ancestry Editions of 23andMe have access only to the Labs relevant to the data they have received.

The point of Labs is to let you, our customers, play around with cutting-edge tools while our scientists are still developing them.  What can we say?  We’re super excited about genetics and we love to share!  Each Lab has its own community so you can compare notes, ask questions and share ideas.  We love to hear your ideas and comments!

But please remember, Labs are a free feature that is not part of our regular service.  Some labs require specialized knowledge or may be of interest only to a subset of our customers. Because they’re still in development, you can expect labs to be a little less refined than our regular product, and somewhat fluid as well. All of them are still in beta.  A feature could be discontinued at any time, or it might be elevated to full integration with our Personal Genome Service.

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We want to ensure that we always present our users with a delightful and empowering experience as they explore their genomes. We are continuously improving the design of all dimensions of our service because they all converge to influence the user experience (UX) of 23andMe – the experience a user will have while interacting with our service. This is where User Experience Designer Iram Mirza comes in.

“The most valuable (and fun) part of designing the user experience for 23andMe is iterating on new and existing solutions,” says Iram.

“We obviously can’t always come up with the best solutions the first time around. Once a design is created, we test it with users to get their feedback and check the design against usability rules of thumb regarding what makes a website easy for people to use and understand. Based on the collective feedback, we adjust the design to make it more usable. Once designs go live on the www.23andme.com site, we continue gathering feedback from customers and use it to inform our future work.”

“I really encourage users to come chat with us about their experiences with 23andMe,” she says.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and interested in being a subject for usability testing, send an email to help@23andme.com to schedule a time to come in an meet Iram. If you can’t visit, that’s ok too. You can always just send us questions or suggestions you might have.

Iram on the 23andMe service:
“I think of 23andMe as a unique network. I love being able to share and compare my genetic profile with my family members who are also 23andMe customers.”

“My sister and I now know there is a good chance we could be organ donors for each other — we used the Family Inheritance feature to compare our genomes.”

“We also learned that my genetics indicate that I can’t taste the bitterness in things like Brussels sprouts, while my sister’s data show that she can. Neither one of us likes Brussels sprouts (there’s more to hate than just bitterness!), but it’s true that I can tolerate bitter vegetables more than she can.”

“And my Ancestry Painting for Chromosome 8 is a work of art! The blend of colors reflects my Asian and European ancestry (I’m from Pakistan). Many people were intrigued when I used an image of this chromosome as my profile picture on Facebook!”

Iram on being a 23andMe employee:
“I love the energy in the office. Everyone is excited about being part of the team and working towards designing the ultimate service for our customers. I appreciate the willingness of everyone here to listen to wild new ideas — and that I’ve had the luxury of implementing a few of them!”


Think you have the right stuff to join forces with Iram on the product team? Check out our jobs page now!

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