Why You Should Pay More Attention To Color In Medical Device Design, StarFish Reveals
When it comes to designing medical products, one needs to consider safety, efficacy, human factors, the benefit-to-risk ratio, regulatory pathway and much more. Color, generally, does not enter into the equation. Christine Park, an industrial designer at Starfish Medical (Victoria, BC, Canada), thinks that it should.
The color, materials and finishing (CMF) category of industrial design—which can be loosely defined as the use of color to improve a product’s usability or to elicit an emotional response from the consumer—is fairly new. “A lot of industrial design programs don’t even offer CMF courses,” Park told PlasticsToday. During an internship at Belkin (Playa Vista, CA), Park was introduced to the world of CMF while working with a team that made iPad and iPod accessories. She brought that sensibility to Starfish Medical two years ago, and will share her thoughts on how the color of a medical device can affect the patient experience during a conference session at MD&M West , co-located with PLASTEC West , in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 7 to 9.
The color, materials and finishing (CMF) category of industrial design—which can be loosely defined as the use of color to improve a product’s usability or to elicit an emotional response from the consumer—is fairly new. “A lot of industrial design programs don’t even offer CMF courses,” Park told PlasticsToday. During an internship at Belkin (Playa Vista, CA), Park was introduced to the world of CMF while working with a team that made iPad and iPod accessories. She brought that sensibility to Starfish Medical two years ago, and will share her thoughts on how the color of a medical device can affect the patient experience during a conference session at MD&M West , co-located with PLASTEC West , in Anaheim, CA, on Feb. 7 to 9.