Taking the Innovative Approach to Medical Product Design

Although medical product requirements are very specific and strict, there is still room for designers to think beyond functionality. With the proliferation of smart devices, personal tech devices and medical equipment started to share much in common.

In today’s world, meaningful data is more valuable than ever and devices can communicate with each other to provide operational benefits for healthcare professionals. In this age of technology, user expectations are getting multi-layered and the emotional aspect of medical products gain vital importance. As the user experience of healthcare shifts in consumers’ perception, the need for innovative design becomes more and more relevant.

Unlike tech devices that constantly introduce a new version with minor improvements, medical products are subject to different set of priorities. Medical products go through many procedures to ensure proper use. Optimization of the product design necessitates many participants. The most important issue is to ensure patient safety above anything else. Arman Design value all of these elements involved in medical product design projects.

The Role of Design in Smart User Interfaces

The practitioner’s skill used to play a huge role in using the medical device, but today the cooperation between the practitioner and the device is much more prominent. The medical devices are now smarter and more functional which make them also more complex. These devices can handle complex data calculations, but what’s in it for design?

The main design problem is to find the meaningful way to convey data, so that practitioners can easily understand and process it. Therefore, designers have the great responsibility to develop effective user interfaces. The aim should be both to strengthen the skills of the practitioner and to overcome heavy calculations and analysis.

While the digital interfaces are getting stronger, the physical interfaces are getting simpler – back in the days we found psychical buttons technological, but today the touch screens have become the norm.

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Patient’s Relationship with the Medical Product

Electronic products are available more than ever and consumers easily adapt to these rapid technological changes. This situation affects consumer’s expectations on medical products. Medical professionals and patients demand medical device to include factors like interaction, ability, speed, performance and adaptability. It is worth noting that number of devices for the use of patients directly has increased considerably.

Furthermore, by just looking at its appearance, customers get an idea about the quality and reliability of the device. A large touch screen looks more sophisticated than a small screen with a lot of buttons. Similarly, size, weight, material and fit greatly affect the perception of the user. Performance and functionality are at the top of the list of priorities and stand out as the main checkpoints for the designers. However, the appearance, behavior, and overall design of the product play a vital role in the creating a strong relationship with the user.

The Best Form to Create the Emotional Connection

In the medical field, safety and performance are the primary factors, and aesthetics is often out of the picture. The reason behind this is to prevent any feature that would affect the safety and performance of the product. However, appearance actually affects the way patient gets engaged with the product and directly influences the patient experience.

Medical devices are critical to create the right emotional connection with the patient. So much so that, the appearance and behavior of devices can make patients tense or help them to relax. For instance, research show that devices that give voice commands cause patients to stress more.
Modern or outdated, the appearance of the device affects the perception of the user in terms of reliability, durability, accessibility and many more. Plus, it determines how users interact with the product. Devices that remind the patient of their illness negatively affect the motivation of the user. This results in avoiding the use of the product especially within social settings. Empathic medical product design can prevent these kind of situations.

The effect of design language especially in medical products is remarkable. As Arman Design, we embrace empathic design throughout the medical product design projects. You can view some of our medical product projects here.

Medical Product Design Requirements

Medical product design is a complex and high-risk field which requires a lot of responsibility. Designers should evaluate different scenarios and be able to focus on all aspects of functionality. As the smart devices become widespread, smooth operation and information flow will determine the quality of the design. In the future, the innovative features will make the medical products stand out. Therefore, products that capture all these sensibilities and empathy will deeply influence human life and health.