Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Medical Device Technology

Incorporating human factors in product design and development.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A malfunctioning device causes problems, as does misuse by users. To reduce the risk of developing malfunctioning or misused products, companies are incorporating Human Factors Engineering (HFE) methods into the product design and development process. By integrating research, HFE and user interface design, companies can identify usage errors and differentiate their products from their competitors. This article describes several ways in which HFE can be used throughout the product development process, and provides some examples of products designed using HFE methods.

Finding the best design

Identifying usage errors is so crucial to risk-managed medical device development that several regulatory bodies have recommended incorporating Hmnan Factors Engineering (HFE) into the risk management process. Because the purpose of HFE is to understand and optimise how people use and interact with tools, processes, products and environments, it is a natural and logical part of any risk management process. To identify known and foreseeable hazards, it is important to have a clear understanding of who will be using the device, for what purpose and where. HFE methods are best used throughout the product development process, from the early stages of concept development through to product testing and evaluation. This article describes three stages of the HFE process:

* Stage 1: Understand and define

* Stage 2: Develop, test and iterate

* Stage 3: Validate.

Stage 1: Understand and define

Before designing a product, it is imperative to understand

* the people who will be interacting with it

* the tasks for which it will be used

* the environments in which it will be used

* business, marketing and technical considerations

The information and knowledge gained in this stage can be used in many ways in the subsequent stages: from inspiring insights to establishing usability metrics with which to evaluate concepts. There are a number of techniques that can be employed to obtain this information, as described below.

Desk research

This is the review and analysis of secondary sources of information such as published reports, articles, books, blogs and databases. Depending on the product being developed, there may be a great deal of...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!