Industrial Design

This chapter focuses on the aspects of Industrial Designers as related to medical device design. Industrial designers develop these concepts and specifications through collection, analysis, and synthesis of data guided by the special requirements of the client or manufacturer. Industrial designers also maintain a practical concern for the following: technical processes and requirements for manufacture, marketing opportunities and economic constraints, and distribution sales and servicing processes. An overview of the tasks involved in industrial design work in product development includes the following items: setting product usability goals, exploring and designing user interfaces (UIs), and prototyping and testing UIs. They also include specifying the final UI, including hardware, and checking for safety, simplicity, usability, alarms, displays, interactions, and documenting same as necessary, consistent with guidelines as promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An important part of the FDA's thinking is the development of the requirements for a medical device.