The Foundation for Innovative New

Diagnostics has been working with us

for almost four years but has significantly

extended the partnership with a number

of major new diagnostic projects. This

latest work will deliver improved tests

for disease screening and diagnosis in

the developing world. We will provide a

range of analytical and development skills

including: understanding the needs of

existing test protocols, especially human

interactions and their impact on test

performance; assessing the feasibility of

biological methods; and producing and

testing prototype devices.

“42 Technology’s creative approach

is helping us solve the complex and

interrelated design problems that we

see when developing new diagnostics in

readiness for private and public sector

launch. The consultancy team is working

closely with our scientific experts to

understand our needs, evaluate concepts

and generate innovative practical

solutions that work.”

— Dr Mark Perkins

Chief Scientific Officer at FIND

Issue 14, February 2013

Low cost, more effective diagnostics

for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases

are being developed as part of

our latest work for FIND.

The latest news from

42 Technology

Engineering the experience

Understand. Create. Evaluate.

The core framework we follow, as supported

by the ISO standard and the University of

Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre, is a

looped process of:

⊲ Understand ⊲ Create ⊲ Evaluate

Good ideas need a good understanding of the

experience, but good understanding requires

the testing of good ideas.

How do we optimise the experience that a new product delivers? — Ryan Chessar

Product development is always

about creating experiences. The

objects of plastic and metal we design

typically have no value except where

they create experiences. Whether it

is a user interface product or even a

manufacturing technology innovation,

the value is derived from what it

enables people to do and how it

makes them feel.

In this article we look at the processes often

used to optimise customer experiences in

product design, including the current best

practice framework and a selection of issues

and tools that deserve particular attention.

People. Not users.

Traditionally the disciplines in this area refer

to ‘Users’. However as the lines blur around

who or what a user is, there is a movement

towards ‘People’ and ‘Human’ centred design,

as referenced by the ISO 13407 standard for

Human-centred-interaction design.

‘Users’ can narrow the mind to the group of

consumers who press buttons – whereas

‘People’ inspires a more empathetic and wider

consideration of the community of buying

influencers and stakeholders who have

complex emotional and psychological drivers.

So the key is to make

efficient loops to identify the

opportunities and challenges

with increasing detail and level

of insight on each iteration.

In summary, ensure you understand the people you are designing for

and the experiences you want them to have, but don’t expect to fully

define the whole picture in a single step – repeat the understand, create

and evaluate cycle until you achieve the necessary level of refinement.

Persona modelling is the creation of a set of characters

to reflect key personal situations in the target area. This

helps us empathise with their needs and provide a way to

generate and evaluate ideas.

Kano analysis helps us differentiate between threshold

and excitement product experiences, and identify

opportunities for product differentiation.

Immersive experience involves visiting key environments

of use and actively participating in the existing and

proposed use cases. It allows the design team to

empathise with the users and gain insight into their

experiences.

Stakeholder research provides a map of the human

context of the product. The objective is to align the design

goals, opportunities and inputs from all the stakeholders.

Lash-up demonstrators are ‘quick and dirty’ models to

simulate the product or take to the target environment.

This might be a cardboard and tape mock-up or a GUI

simulation.

Used-like prototypes, in contrast to a typical ‘looks-like’ or

‘works-like’ prototype, allow us to test how the product is

used, but not necessarily working the same way or looking

like the final device.

Inclusivity analysis evaluates capabilities vs product/

experience demands. A product’s demands on the user

can be compared to their capabilities in dexterity, vision,

hearing, communication, locomotion and reach.

User testing validation is required by the FDA for medical

products. Specific user demographic profiles must be

tested in sufficient quantities with representative contexts

and user instructions.

Understand

As with the technical aspects of product design, the first step

in the creation process is to understand. With a technical

development it may be possible to extensively understand,

specify and predict good solutions; but experience design

is different. The opportunity is often difficult to specify — easy

to use does not help much.

As an example, we recently tested a consumer drug dispensing

device with pharmacists and untrained users, only to discover

that the over-confident pharmacists subverted the process and

produced errors, whereas the novice consumers did not!

The first understanding step need not be an exhaustive study

of the user’s environment, desires, needs and issues. We can

form an initial overview and move onto creating and testing

ideas. In later cycles of understanding, the requirements

become more refined and better segmented – eg using Kano

Analysis.

Create

Importantly, we are creating experiences rather than objects.

As such, the initial creative loop may produce a set of stories of

ideal interactions for key situations and personas. These ideas

should be made tangible for review as quickly as possible.

In later loops the ideas will be recorded through increasingly

high fidelity illustration and prototyping.

Evaluate

You don’t necessarily need a large group of perfect

stakeholders to get useful feedback and input to the

development cycle. For an earlier stage it may be appropriate

to use people around you. Novice testers from different skill

backgrounds can let you see the product from fresh angles

or customer-facing experts (such as sales and marketing

departments) can offer an initial consumer opinion. In later

cycles of development you can move towards testing with

representative groups of the target demographic.

Tools & techniques

As a consultancy that develops new products we are often

asked by our clients how to make the best use of patents. Two

years ago we began a joint venture with a partner company

who specialise in patent analysis. Together we have built an

intellectual property toolkit that we have been applying to many

of our projects in innovation, design and development.

Our tools bring together the analysis skills of our partner, IP

Research, with the innovation skills of our design team. We

have designed each tool to add value at different stages during

a development. We are able to help our clients understand

the patent landscape and determine how to apply that

understanding during product development.

Included within this toolkit are:

1. Product and technology scouting — useful in the early

stages of a new development to find out whether a solution

already exists in another industry and to find potential

collaborators.

2. Technology opportunity discovery — great for finding new

markets and applications for technologies.

3. Prior art analysis — useful periodically throughout a

development to determine competitive landscape, establish

patentability of new ideas and identify sources of inspiration.

4. Patent work-around — to find innovative solutions in heavily

patented areas or understand the challenges imposed by a

competitor’s patent.

5. Concept expansion — to grow the scope of a patent by

building on existing ideas to give optimum protection both

now and in the future.

Making patents work for you

We have reorganised our senior management team

and are gearing up for growth with the appointment of

Dave Wilson as managing director. Howard Biddle who

previously held the role, becomes chairman, allowing him

to focus on strategic business opportunities.

Dave Wilson, who first joined 42T as sales and marketing

director in 2002, took up his new position in October

and will be responsible for rolling out and overseeing an

ambitious five year growth strategy for the business. The

management team reshuffle follows an in-depth strategic

review that was started when the company moved into

its new premises in 2011.

“42 Technology has been growing steadily for a number

of years but having recently doubled our office and

laboratory space we can now take on much larger,

longer-term client projects. In his new position, Dave

Wilson will ensure we have all the right people, skills and

systems in place to boost our business development

activities and to take the consultancy up to the next

level,” said Howard Biddle, chairman of 42T.

42 Technology Limited

Meadow Lane, St Ives

Cambridgeshire PE27 4LG

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1480 302700

Fax: +44 (0)1480 302701

Email: answers@42technology.com

www.42technology.com

42 Technology goes for growth with new managing director

If you are interested in how we can help you use patents to strengthen your work in product development then get in touch.

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How to use patents, what to patent and how to understand the patent landscape