Before anything else, every design project or product must comply with a set of functional requirements. It is a defined plan. Otherwise, it isn’t a product at all. Perhaps it’s simply a useless object or trash. Or maybe it is artwork. The first, and most critical step, in any product design project is to define the specifications in detail. This establishes the common foundation upon which all subsequent decisions will be made as the project evolves. A well-written set of product specifications not only outlines the definition of the product but also provide a framework for setting priorities and performance
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Archives for Medical Product Design
How to Optimize Design Collaboration for Success
Design is an activity unique to the human species. It’s a creative process requiring a combination of skills exclusive to the domain of humans. These skills are based on our ability to react to our environment with the creation of a tool, device or mechanism. And that enables us to change our lives and environment to better suit our needs. Historically, individuals have developed significant inventions and designs. Today, however, most products are comprised of complex subsystems requiring specialized skills that can only be fulfilled by specialists. Consequently, successful products represent well-managed product design collaboration. These are individuals who cooperatively
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Understanding Creativity—the Magical Factor in Product Design
In a broad perspective, design is at the center of humanity and civilization. It’s what defines culture, history and the world we live in. Humans or nature have designed virtually everything around us, and that’s probably why the design factor is often overlooked. But when the design is noticed, it is typically discussed in terms of its function, appearance or ease of use. And all of those factors link to a common baseline that dictates or supports the final design solution. We call it creativity. It is the magical factor that leads to solutions for complex problems and spectacular designs
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Plastic Material Selection Panel Discussion with the Experts
Specifying the optimum plastic material selection for a medical device is a critical decision for any designer or engineer. A design must choose the optimum material form the hundreds of thousands of commercially available plastic materials on the market. He or she must make this selection based on dozens of complex design criteria with the certainty that their final decision will satisfy all the product specifications. This panel discussion on plastic material selection was one of the best-attended presentations held at the 2019 MD&D Show in New York’s Jacob Javits Center. Michael Paloian challenged four of the plastics industry’s leaders
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Top Ten Most Important Considerations for Outsourcing Medical Design
Outsourcing medical design and development is extremely beneficial if the right design firm is selected. External creative input typically provides an in-house design team with a different perspective, new ideas and specialized expertise. If the right design firm is chosen, project costs can be more easily controlled, overhead can be reduced, and schedules can be met. Outsourcing also motivates in-house designers and engineers to be more productive on their own projects. The key underlying challenge is identifying the “right” firm or partner. This paper will hopefully provide you with some insightful parameters to consider next time you are selecting a
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Healthcare Product Design: The Chemistry of Applying the Human Element
by Michael Paloian, President, Integrated Design Systems This brief article highlights the importance of human factors and their effect on healthcare product design. The broad term “healthcare products” embraces everything from disposable syringes to multimillion-dollar MRI machines. Some products are microscopic in size while others can fill a room. Despite the wide range of cost, size, shape or complexity, all of these products have one thing in common: the human element. Human Factors – designing healthcare products for people These are people products. People interact with healthcare products as clinicians or patients. It’s essential that these devices be designed for
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