Usability for medical devices: an introduction

Video resources

Classes on Usability for Medical Devices held during the UBORA Design School 2018.


The design of the interface, i.e. the "control panel" of a medical device, requires a specific technical analysis of expectations, skills and knowledge of the end user; the more refined the more the interface is complex.

Too often the word "interface" refers to the windows and virtual buttons of a screen, but in the medical devices sector designers must also take into account interfaces of a more traditional type: the shape, the handles, the weight, the connection mechanisms the accessories of a device heavily influence the way they are used.

Consider for example the need for a patient to inject a drug every day - typically on the abdomen: the needs of a child, a woman of childbearing age or an overweight senior will be very different, in terms of manipulation of the syringe and visibility of the area of injection.


Already today, some designers of medical devices have been able to grasp the user 's need with inventive, original solutions that perfectly meet the needs of the patient / user.