Industrial Design
User Experience Design
Mobile Surgery Products for Siemens Healthineers
In March 2015, I joined Siemens Healthineers (Goa, India) as an apprentice in the X-Ray division which at the time was developing India R&D's own indigenous C-Arm machine. The project was aimed at upgrading the existing range of C-arms which were on the verge of obsoletion. I joined primarily for the design of the user interface and going beyond the job role, I helped bring coherence to the design language to the physical aspects of the machine from an industrial design perspective and the entire user experience. These tasks were helped by a great system level R&D team (that I was part of), as also by the amazing folks from the ground-level mechanical design team which mostly comprised of some of the best engineers in Goa. The project was a great learning experience for me (and everyone involved) in bringing coherence in form and function to a multitude of sub-systems, to deliver a product for tier III/IV hospitals across India.
It is time: Cios Fit
Industrial Design
Verna, Goa
June 2015- June 2017
C-arms are mobile surgery units, that involve a lot of movement controls and are mostly used in operation theatres for fluoroscopy (continuous X-Ray imaging) during surgeries. User studies at local government hospitals informed us of existing issues as wire management, rodent menace, cleaning and maintenance (due to constant grime and blood). Braking operations, slope slipping, steering the unit through small alleys and other human controls were also noted down.
Siemens Goa: A picturesque workplace
C-arm usage comic
C-arm usage (L-R): 1. Accessing Patient details 2. Positioning the C-arm, adjusting power, capturing images 3. Viewing Live Images on the monitor
Most of the physical components were in place before I joined, and my interventions began only after I brought to notice and tried to solve the visual blocking of the crucial static user interface owing to the horizontal slide of the unit. Working with the mechanical design team, we tackled each component one by one- main unit handles, brakes, monoblock. image intensifier cap. I helped bring coherence interacting with the various sub-systems who were in-charge of these parts.
The monitor trolley was supposed to be developed by an external vendor. Along with a mechanical apprentice, we accessed Siemens product style guides and after an evening of ideation, we quickly rendered a concept and pitched it to the management. The general design design direction was approved. The internalised design process helped convince HQ of local expertise, helping incorporate the machine under CIOS brand umbrella.
The dynamic user interface on the touchscreen monitor
The C-arm has a first-of-its kind 1920x1080p touchscreen, as opposed to the interface being split on two screens currently in the market. The screen is primarily used for Patient Registration, Image Acquisition and Post-processing of acquired images. It is mounted on the aforementioned trolley. The workflows for the whole touch experience was based on the OT observations, and designed keeping in mind the Siemens Style Guide, a dark theme and ensuring that wherever you were in the workflow, you could immediately re-direct to Image Acquisition screen. We were guided by keywords as: Urgency, Perception of ease-of-use, Manouverability, Contrast, Clickable. The design influences ranged from Swiss-inspired Windows mobile UI, Google's Material Design and fundamental Gestalt Laws.
Acting also as a UI designer, I delivered the graphic assets to the development team at SFO-NeST (Cochin, India). This was followed by a QA check on the incoming deliveries for defects and fidelity to submitted designs.
The Static UI is a hardwired keyboard on the main unit, that controls the fluoroscopy parameters, machine movements and power. The main user for this interface is often a radiography assistant or a simple wardboy. With 20+ function keys, care had to be taken to balance function, interpretation and action, while minimising cognitive load. This was achieved by clustering of functions based on their usage in the workflow. From left to right, the keys were arranged for initialisation, mode selection, image processing, post-processing and emergency alerts. The grouping also aimed to work around the visual blocking of the keypad due to physical components.
The Static UI is a hardwired keyboard on the main unit, that controls the fluoroscopy parameters, machine movements and power. The main user for this interface is often a radiography assistant or a simple wardboy. With 20+ function keys, care had to be taken to balance function, interpretation and action, while minimising cognitive load. This was achieved by clustering of functions based on their usage in the workflow. From left to right, the keys were arranged for initialisation, mode selection, image processing, post-processing and emergency alerts. The grouping also aimed to work around the visual blocking of the keypad due to physical components.
The static user interface paper mock-ups
In May 2016, Siemens Healthcare underwent a company-wide re-branding as Siemens Healthineers, which was diametrically opposite to the industrious designs of the legacy Siemens products. For understanding the philosophies of this image change, I was deputed to the headquarters in Erlangen, Germany to work with the PLM-UX team under Jonas Vollmer. This month long stint included discussions on the re-branding roadmap and how product portfolios would be tied together by design elements- physical and virtual. I also helped advocate what Goa team mandate, given how far we were in the development phase- what was feasible for our product and the Indian markets in general. On returning, I had to share inputs on what could be done for product versions and future upgrades till a formal 'Healthineers' style guide was issued.