User-Centered Design for Manufacturing and Assembly: An Application in the Early Design Stages

ABSTRACT

In product design fields where the demand for an efficient usability is critical to its final success, it is essential to integrate user requirements into the design process from the earliest design stages. Particularly in the medical context, it is essential to systematically control the design phases in order not to neglect the strict constraints related to engineering design quality, safety, and usability requirements for the end user. Hence, in this work, an integrated user-centered product design and process simulation method is proposed. This method is aimed at enriching the state of the art in integrated product design and process simulation in the early design stages, as well as providing a novel design example of a device thought for medical contexts. The case study consists in the design of an intercom, aimed at improving patient-doctor communication in the case of bedridden patients on with helmet for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy during COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Patients undergoing helmet-assisted ventilation are often immersed in a highly noisy environment, unable to fully communicate their needs to the doctors. Intercom devices are addressed to the doctors for improving ease communication with the patient. The proposed user-centered design for manufacturing and assembly proved to be efficient in such a complex design context. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.