Defining and implementing a consistent and look & feel across multiple modalities and platforms is a big and complex issue in dealing with professional equipment because of the specific needs, environments and traditions of each.
Nowhere is this more so than in the medical world where needs, expectations and impressions of many very different different groups must be addressed and solved in a way that help instantiate the brand promise and creates valuable and compelling experiences at every level from the manager to the doctors, nurses, patients and dependents.
Ultrasound imaging systems designed for Philips Medical aim to alleviate patient anxiety and operator discomfort, while integrating and instantiating the larger brand promise and creating an innovative, cost effective and friendly new product.
Special focus on the user and operator experience in the ultrasound system lead to improved work flow and ergonomics and less complex visual aesthetics that positively effects all the interested parties. Especially the operator comfort was a key concern as research showed that almost all sonograpers experience discomfort or pain during an exam because of the arkward ergonomics of traditional ultrasound systems.
Nuclear imaging solutions like the combination spect-ct also for Philips Medical enables innovative new treatments, are big, complex, intimidating and very scary experiences. Most of the design effort was invested in creating experiences to reassure and alleviate the already high stress of the situation and their ailment.
As often the case, the design of medical system become an integral part of the procedure it self, when by careful and user centered design it is made less intimidating, scary and impersonal, and the patient and dependents gain a more positive experience. To the service provider and the attending staff it’s equally valuable as it can lowers their workload by allowing faster and less error prone procedures and freeing valuable time to focus on patients.
Designing watches for the Danish watch maker Rem Rem has been a great pleasure and one of my personal pet projects over the years. As a small company with it’s roots in the Velcro sports strap market a strategy to expand into watches was a natural next step and I was asked to create a range that integrated closely with the strap and stood out in the very crowded market.
The solution was a multi purpose series of watches with a case that could be used as both a sporty and dressy watch depending on the dial used. The family was then created by designing a colorful set of dials to spread the appeal across the board from the technical to the feminine, the weird to the funny.
The second range was a stab as the slightly high price points and therefore introduced both chronographs and multifunction watches. The design also moved more masculine to with the market and these new movements and with the very ‘in you face’ media campaign ‘Why kill time…’ it catapulted the brand into a very public and cutting edge position with a minimum of investment.
While I was living in Hong Kong, I designed an additional 2 ranges of titanium watches aimed at shifting the brand towards a more high end, mature and elegant experience with brushed metal finishes, subdued minimalistic graphic detaining and both water buffalo leather straps and solid titanium bracelets.
My latest watches for Rem Rem, is a range of 16 watch designs spread over two families and encompassing both quartz and automatic moments. Both families are targeted at active and dynamic men, but offer very different interpretations of what it is to be active, young and masculine.
Goliath G250 lamp is the first in a completely new range of cool-touch work lights for the professional market, where it will continue the market leadership enjoyed by the original Goliath K1.
It is always a pleasure, but a big challenge to be working on a replacement range and to be given a second opportunity to channel experiences, lessons learned and hard market feedback into a product that hopefully will become as big a success as the original.
One of the key challenges for this new range has been how to define and create sufficient user benefits and product qualities to survive in the increasingly crowded market of low cost Asian knockoffs and even cheaper hot halogen work lights, while at the same time defend hard earned brand equity and create a new aspirational instantiation and powerful marketing story.
The G250 uses the GE 2D light tube and combined with a high quality electronic ballast it provides a long lasting, safe and powerful solution. Encased in a high a quality rubber and polycarbonate housing it is both durable and water resistant (IP65) to live up to the tough real life demands on professional work sites.
I invented and designed the original Goliath lamp in the early ‘90’s and it is still to this day the best selling in it’s category on the market. The new range adds a new set of unique and powerful user benefits ranging from improved fixations, cable management and improved light direction to increased light output and dual power sockets.
The product is based on extensive end user and sales channel research, as well as a multidisciplinary process involving members from the whole organization. Through visual mappings, segmentation, benchmarking and scenario creation, a set of product benefits and a compelling product vision and roadmap was developed that not only positioned the brand, range and products, but also allowed for a concise and fast development cycle, with clear user benefits and target audience.
Complex interaction and high volume consumer electronics have always been a special interest area for me and they still are some of the most challenging projects to undertake, with their combination of user interaction, industrial design, manufacturing, marketing aspects, brand, positioning, competitive environment & sales channel issues.
One of the most exciting companies in the market is Samsung who is willing to experiment and invest when necessary. This has positioned them as a compelling market leader for the future and I’ve had the great fortune to assist on a few projects over the years. First when I designed an NMT mobile phone for them in the late 80’s, later on Telefax concepts and currently on innovation projects.
Close definition and attention to the user experiences, qualities and benefits desired by the target audiences can lead to compelling value propositions. Design is a crucial storytelling tool to communicate the products use, position the user socially and build the brand, by engaging the user in meaningful experiences and simply grabbing attention on the shelf.
The user centered innovation process is therefore a powerful tool to find and refine appropriate qualities and experiences to achieve consistent and predictable success in the global markets. This was was the way we approached the creation of a global wired and wireless telephony range for Philips.
The tool set was originally developed to deal with b2c product, but is equally appropriate and useful when dealing with the b2b market, but with a different set of users, motivators and decision makers it needs to be tuned and used differently.
From the simple cb-radios in the 80’s designed for Danitas Radio to Samsung products in the 90’s the process has evolved and matured to deal with the latest generation of communication products for Philips Electronics and others.
Strategic design and early iterative prototyping to explore future opportunities and the flexibility of the audiences creates a way to involve the target audience an lead users and extract valuable user insights. These insights can help leapfrog the product offering ahead of the bell curve, and the competition and to secure a unique and ownable platform for both technology development and brand positioning.
Communication products is also an area with insanely rapid product life and development cycles. Only by constantly looking into the future through user research and dialog with especially leadusers, about their needs and aspirations, can the usually limited development resources be focused and market leadership be achieved by defining compelling visions and road maps.
The high volume electronics world of portable audio is all about understanding the end users, their dreams and expectations, and the sales channel mechanics.
They are often used as loss-leader products in mass retail to get customers into the shop and they need to stand out and engage the buyer on the shelf as well as in the advertising leaflets. This leads to a unique user centered process with extensive use of research, sales channel involvements and fast paced product replacements to stay ahead of the competition.
Products are designed as ranges and these are again subdivided into tiers and value positions to address all the user segments head on with compelling reasons to buy, and buy up.
This boom box is designed to attract the entry level buyer who is intimidated by or uninterested in the functionality and want to have an easy to use, recognizable, and a good value. It therefore uses simple clean and straight forward user interface style and layout. The general design language is calm and soft but firm and with focus in the key selling features.
This entry level digital clock radio is designed for the same position and user experience and lays out the controls and display so it’s easy to overview and use, while exposing the benefits of the digital tuner.
At the other end of the spectrum is the range aimed users who are looking for and willing to pay for the latest innovations and more advanced features. This cd micro system with coaxial speakers mirror coated display and metal look and feel is at this segment.
Due to it’s cutting edge technology and high price point this mp3 cd portable was also designed as part of the same segment. It was the first mp3 player to be launched by a major brand and was developed in less than 6 months to position the brand as an innovator and get the early mover advantage in what already then was promising to become a very difficult market.
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