Medical Device Link.

DESIGN

“The value of industrial design is that it is such a differentiator… A good industrial design is what can give your products the edge. The contribution of industrial designers is that they can stand outside conventional thinking. They look at things from a different angle and this difference of approach can lead to innovation in design.” Lawrie Cunningham, Black & Decker.¹

This view appeared in Clive Rassam’s study of design and corporate success made in the 1990s. Rassam made the case that “design and innovation are the best way to add value to and differentiate a product, and the best way of competing successfully, when competing on price is not an option.”
Now, ten years later, the medical products industry continues to compete predominantly on technology.

Affymetrix Inc. (www.affymetrix.com) provides an excellent case for how design can be used to create competitive advantage. The company develops technology for processing complex genetic information and designs products that enable and apply that technology. In the past, it was able to compete on its technology platforms. However, new players in its markets, the emergence of new products, and the impact of low-cost economies have meant that this business strategy is not sustainable in the long term. The company responded by introducing a range of measures within its product development process with the specific aim of differentiating its products in the eyes of customers and users, as follows.

• Consumer research took in new stakeholder groups to include not merely patients, but anyone else that may interact with a product such as family and nurses.
• Because budgets were tight, the company developed “hierarchies of needs” based on the most important emotional needs of users and customers.
• Design was introduced at the beginning of the process and continued with the project throughout engineering.
• A “design language” was introduced to describe the attributes that a product should have and the company used that language to differentiate its products by employing colour, materials, shape and feel to make those attributes “real” to the user.

The beneficial results

By employing this new design focus over a series of new products the Affymetrix team began to experience the results:

• The research revealed “workarounds” that the company was not previously aware of, that is, users finding ways to overcome fundamental flaws in products that had not previously been identified.
• The hierarchies of needs allowed the company to focus limited design resource on design features that would add real value to its products. For example, if sterility was a major concern, polished metal or ceramic surfaces were introduced; other products were designed for “warmth,” and less tangible qualities were made real by the introduction of physical features. For example, specific lights were introduced to illustrate “brilliance.”
• Making design more integral to the process ensured that critical features were not engineered-out and the whole team became more design aware.
• Embracing design has led to additional spin-off benefits such as winning major design awards and the reputation for innovation that it creates.

The full Affymetrix case study is available on request from Pure Insight, www.pure-insight.com/.

The influence on purchasing

Companies are much more inclined to use good design in packaging and corporate identity than in product design. This can undermine the product’s performance if the product itself does not live up to the promise of the company brand or the presentation.

The difference that design can really make on purchasing decisions that focus on function, feature and cost is sometimes questioned. The change comes once a range of potential purchases has been whittled down to perhaps two or three options. At that stage the customer switches from looking at products individually against a set of criteria and starts to make judgements about the differences between the products on the shortlist.

At this stage in the process even the most hardened, cost-driven buyers make their decisions based on differences that are noted unconsciously as well as consciously. Rational appeals address only a portion of the customer’s process because unconscious or emotional factors such as hunches, feelings and social considerations are an important facet of customer decision-making. Customers differentiate between competing products and services on the basis of many factors, including price, visual comparisons, performance comparisons, sensory and ease-of-use comparisons, fears and assurances, and the social or regulatory influence of others.

The impact of design

The design of the product, and if applicable, its packaging, are crucial factors with respect to visual appearance, ease of use and performance; they can have an influence on social sanctions and assurances. Product design may also have an impact on pricing, particularly given the consideration that project costs are established early in the concept and design phase. By the same logic, design may have an impact on life-cycle costs and, to differing degrees, design may be used to leverage, or at least to bolster, product differentiation.

Companies that take time to understand the mechanism of customer’s buying decisions and take into account that design must meet the emotional, unconscious criteria of customers as well as the rational, conscious ones will be well on their way to emulating Affymetrix’s success in embedding real lasting value for customers and users into its technology products.

Jane Hogan is Director of Pure Insight,* Cuthbert House, City Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2ET, UK, tel. +44 191 350 6171, e-mail: jane.hogan@pure-insight.com, www.pure-insight.com.

* Pure Insight was formerly Knowledge Roundtable Europe