CHALLENGE
Bring the aesthetics of a suite of audiometry diagnostic devices up-to-date to match the devices’ newly improved technology.
OUTCOME
A new design language that refined the products aesthetic appeal and improved overall usability, while remaining flexible enough to scale to the various sizes within the future product suite.
For over 65 years, Grason-Stadler (GSI) has been setting the clinical standard in audiometry, tympanometry, and hearing healthcare diagnostics. Although GSI’s legacy products were known for setting standards in performance and ease of use, the aesthetic appeal of its products did not appropriately match the quality of the technology behind them. And so, in 2010, GSI approached Worrell to partner on a project to improve the visual appeal of its leading diagnostic products.
Worrell’s Design teams began by documenting requirements that were sourced from in-depth analyses of existing customer feedback on GSI’s predicate products, as well as expected users and use case environments. Worrell’s designers used this information to inform the first round of concept sketches. The leading concepts were converted to 3D CAD for the designers to evaluate considerations such as the overall volume, angle of vision, and button placement. At the same time, Worrell’s User Experience team explored various ways to simplify GSI’s future user interface and graphic design.
The new design improved user-experience while remaining flexible enough to scale to the various sizes of GSI’s future product suite. These files were then handed to Worrell’s Engineering team to prepare GSI’s devices for full-scale manufacturing.
Worrell’s expertise in Industrial Design, User Experience Design, Engineering, and Prototyping produced a new family of audiometric instruments that redefined the standards of hearing healthcare diagnostic solutions. The designs reinforced GSI’s most important brand attributes — quality, reliability and user-friendly — further solidifying the company’s market-leading position.
“GSI was looking for an industrial design firm that had a clear process of developing an industrial design language for a medical device company. After talking to several industrial design firms, Worrell stood out in being able to communicate a clear development process with strong internal project leadership, as well as an impressive history of working with medical device companies. Worrell is a creative firm with a strong methodological process and great prototyping abilities, which has helped GSI’s product line stand out.”
– Grason-Stadler’s Pat Dobrowski, Director of R&D
