Optimizing a Medical Device Through User Research, Prototyping, and User Testing
Case Study
How might we evolve the design of a medical device prototype into a MVP in 6 weeks that balances the clinician’s unique requirements, satisfies rigid patent and cost limitations, addresses patients’ behaviors and unmet needs, and can be showcased to internal stakeholders?
Our client is a healthcare incubator that works directly with inventors (often clinicians) to evaluate and commercialize ideas with significant market and social impact. While the inventions in its pipeline are inspired by observed patient needs and gaps in the current healthcare system, they require an additional lens of user experience, design, and business strategy to create truly innovative solutions that are technically feasible, economically viable, and ultimately desirable.
onducted in-field research with the inventor and patients to understand context of use, user pain-points and unmet needs, and patent requirements. The team, quickly overcame mechanical and usability challenges by developing creative engineering and design solutions. They then designed and developed multiple design directions to address controlled rotation, size, and weight limitations. Design directions were rapidly prototyped into a range of low-fidelity design concepts, which were quickly tested with users, and evolved based on learnings into a functional prototype that looks like and feels like the potential go-to-market device. MO Studio’s team created and implemented a design with a considered aesthetic direction and user experience. The final deliverable was two functional prototypes with working mechanisms, soft goods, and hardware components.
“MO Studio’s multidisciplinary team designed, prototyped and developed a complex device for us on a tight schedule. They explored multiple design directions and delivered a product that exceeded our expectations.”
– Sr. Industrial Designer, Product Development