Adaptive Path Blog

I’ll have to admit that I struggled with some skepticism of the Charmr project when it first began.

How could we take a complex subject that others have studied and researched for years and make a meaningful contribution to the field in a matter of weeks? With all of the engineering problems that remain unsolved, what could we, as user experience researchers and designers, bring to the table?

As I worked on the project, however, I realized what we could introduce by taking an “engineering problem” and approaching it from a user experience perspective: An experience-centered vision of the future and a more human approach to medical device design.

A Vision of the Future

The result of this project was not a polished product, but a vision — a vision of what the diabetic experience could look like in a few years if considered from a user-centered perspective.

People generally agree about what technology is desirable, but we wanted to go a step further and paint a more concrete picture of what it might look when these technologies are brought together to create a coherent experience. Beginning with the assumption that technologies under development will become reality in the next 2-3 years, we asked, what could the end result look like?

The idea was to give diabetic device companies a more concrete goal to aim for and to promote a user-centered approach for getting there.

A Human Approach to Medical Device Design

The technologies used in the Charmr are not new ideas: The Omnipod (with its remote controlled pump and insulin reservoir that’s kept close to the body) and the Minimed Paradigm Real-Time (continuous glucose monitor that communicates with the pump) have already been introduced; other technologies are under development.

Our focus was not on the technology itself, but on humanizing it. As Amy’s original call to action read:

“We’re people first and patients second…. If insulin pumps or continuous monitors had the form of an iPod Nano, people wouldn’t have to wonder why we wear our “pagers” to our own weddings… In short, medical device manufacturers are stuck in a bygone era; they continue to design these products in an engineering-driven, physician-centered bubble. They have not yet grasped the concept that medical devices are also life devices, and therefore need to feel good and look good for the patients using them 24/7, in addition to keeping us alive.”

These devices are not just medical necessities… they’re part of millions of people’s lifestyles. Understanding the complete experience surrounding these devices — the emotional struggles, the everyday hassles, the social scenarios — is critical to creating a device that looks and feels like it was designed with people in mind.

Our primary hope is that device companies will see the enthusiasm that a vision created from this perspective can generate and might embrace a more human-centered approach in their work. And we hope to inspire others to answer Amy’s call to take action now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Charmr Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.