Health & Care

design for well-being

Well designed product solutions keep people healthier and help to overcome many disabilities.

Intelligent health care devices monitor the patient during treatment, providing better outcomes and raising the alarm if things start to go wrong.

User design research and ergonomics helps to identify problems for users, such as poor sight and limited dexterity, providing better product and environmental solutions.

Physical and mental wellbeing is improved by devices that help people with their personal care tasks and encourage regular exercise.

Our design work includes personal care products, care alarms, portable patient heart monitors, inclusive remote controls for Sky and electric showers for Triton.


2009

Free2style Hair Straightener

2009

Free2style is a portable hair straightener, incorporating special low voltage PTC dual temperature heating elements, powered by a rechargeable lithium polymer battery. The design combines a high temperature plastic moulded construction with metallic and soft touch rubber finishes.

Advanced 3D CAD tools were used to model and validate the design with rapid prototyping. A complete package of assembly and component data was then developed for Pearl Lion to manufacture the product and tooling in China.

2005

Sky Inclusive Remote Control

2005

The Sky Inclusive Remote Control includes the Sky Plus PVR functionality, but with special ergonomic improvements for users with poor sight and limited physical dexterity.

The keys are designed with an increased tactile travel and feedback, bolder lettering and higher contrast colours. The back of the remote control is provided with a rubber moulded strap that helps users with a weak grip to pick up and hold the control.

2003

Triton T100E Care Shower

2003

The design of the Triton T100E Care Shower involved an investigation and research into the needs of elderly and impaired users of electric showers, using prototype modelling and evaluation with user groups and an expert panel.

Particular improvements were made to the size and consistency of the control colours and graphics and the use of tactile forms and edges, that help identify individual controls and their zoning, to improve the ergonomics and safety of the shower.

2000

Lifecard CF Holter Recorder

2000

The Lifecard CF Holter Recorder housing was designed and engineered for Reynolds Medical to meet a particularly demanding specification for small size, ruggedness and ease of use for ECG recording over an extended period of up to seven days.

The housing design is water resistant and provides access to the single AAA battery and flash card. The unit incorporates a low power display and sealed elastomer control buttons on the front surface with a belt clip and lanyard attachment on the back surface.

1998

Cardionetics CNet2000

1998

The Cardionetics CNet 2000 is an innovative heart monitor utilising neural network technology to rapidly diagnose heart beat data in the field. To reduce patient concern, the device was styled to resemble a personal audio, rather than a more functional medical device.

The housing is designed to be simple for the doctor to use and comfortable for the patient to wear. One button is used for set up by the doctor and for ’event’ input by the patient. A single socket is used for both the chest pad sensors and for data download to the doctor’s PC and printer.

1996

Aid Call Care Alarm

1996

The Forum and Social alarms were developed as a product family for Aid-Call, a leading care call monitoring company, that required stylish and ergonomic designs, that could be desk or wall mounted.

The injection moulded housing incorporates the electronics, speaker, microphone and backup batteries, with call buttons that are semi-recessed, to prevent accidental operation. The units were designed with wall mount accessories and emergency pull cord operation.

1987

Sinemet Pill Dispenser

1987

The Sinemet Pill Dispenser was designed for the Merck Sharpe Dohme Foundation as a pocket accessory for patients with Parkinson’s disease to dispense single tablets on the move with a single press.

The design is plastic injection moulded and incorporates a large area pill loading surface and an internal spring loaded pill guiding mechanism was developed to prevent jamming of the elliptical shaped Sinemet pills.

1985

TrimTech Ova Exerciser

1985

The TrimTech Ova is an interactive exercise device with a ball that detects both force and compression, combined with control and display electronics in a stylish housing, which cradles the ball, giving the device a distinctive visual identity.

The machine sets the pace and duration of the exercise, using sound effects and displays a score at the end of each session. Our role was to specify the exercise routines, develop the optical force sensor inside the fabric covered ball and engineer the components for production.