Erdmann Design: HCD for medical innovation

Erdmann Design’s award-winning services, based on Human-Centered Design (HCD) concepts, have been successfully applied to the development of medical devices and life-sciences technology, where usability and end-user experience are key success factors.

Erdmann’s Medical Design expertise and insights can produce more effective and faster-to-market solutions for ophthalmology, operation rooms, diagnostic graphic user interfaces, screen designs, surgical instruments and tools, wearable devices, and any form of medical device.

Design Thinking and Human Centered Design

Human centered design is a basic requirement for successful market introduction where ready acceptance by end-users is a key success criterion.  This is all the more so for medical technology and equipment that has to meet particularly rigorous production, safety and quality regulatory standards.

Experience shows that many surgeons and a considerable number of caregivers often have problems operating medical technology products, even to the point where patients are placed in danger. As a consequence, in March 2010 new EU regulations were introduced to ensure medical products may only be launched on the market if the entire development process, including all analysis and design steps (e.g. rapid prototyping) has been recorded in a usability file (DIN standard EN 62366). The standard requires detailed documentation of all planning steps, designs, prototypes and their test results.

Manufacturers are therefore increasingly focused on HCD processes that combine practical information with ergonomic design and usability considerations at the right time and stage in the development and production process to ensure products that are truly market-ready.

Erdmann Design HCD skills

Erdmann Design is a holistic design agency that sees process-like measures geared towards the user as key components for successfully preparing medical technology products for its clients to ensure faster and more successful market introduction.

This means placing analysis of context and intended product use at the very start of the development process and interrogating all assumptions rigorously, looking for example at:

• Precisely which conditions are relevant for end use?
• Who works with the equipment and when?
• What are the knowledge, education and training levels that exist and are required?
• What are the work processes, rituals, habits, and process steps involved in product use?
• What working environments and physical working conditions must the product support?
• In what functional and geographic locations will the product be used?

Attractive design, action-guiding user interfaces and software ergonomics are all important but only part of the total design answer. Ultimately, questions of specific, practice-oriented product and user qualities – acceptance and credibility – are decisive for market success or failure.

At Erdmann Design, the combination of design competence and corporate branding experience brings decisive advantages, especially for startup companies who need to be guided and assisted through development and marketing.

Erdmann Design’s portfolio of medical design skills and capabilities include corporate branding (with development workshops) and visual design, brand definition, User Experience (UX) design, liaison with medical/life science professionals, marketing networks, trade fair positioning and corporate communications.

In short, Erdmann is able to connect with the original Big Idea in medical technology, test it against existing experience and shape it into a deliverable and marketable solution.

Resources

Click on Experience Mapping for Human Centered Design to download PDF.
Click on Erdmann Design thinking as a standard for medical design brochure.