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Our brief required us to re-design a product that moves and/or shakes to aid the user, without the use of electronics. Being immersed in a family of NHS workers, I recall regularly hearing of the physical and mental pain caused by glass shards embedded in the user's finger.
After exploring the field of NHS product development, and highlighting the key factors of designing for health and safety requirements posted by the NHS-sid Programme; NHS National Innovation Centre [NIC]; UK Medicine & Healthcare Regulatory Agency [MHRA]; and the Small Business Research Initiative [SBRI]. Further diving into the statistical analysis of the user market and the solutions provided, I found that the need for this product was highly justified. With 532,469 nurses FTE registered nurses in 2016; over 564,000 Meningitis ACWY saline ampoules required annually [2017]; 5,000,000 estimated anaesthetics given each year in the UK [2009]; and over 696,000 powdered MMR given to a single generation of UK kids in 2017, the target market was forever expanding. The need for redesign was justified with statistics stating that 51.7% of ampoules are poorly manufactured with jagged edges; 54% of reported SHARPS incidents are ampoule based; and 26% of healthcare professionals have reported scarring due to broken ampoules. I moved from linear and hand-held product designs, to a desk-top product that can open any sized ampoule, therefore removing the requirement for many different product designs to suit the differing ampoule types, sizes and materials; this was where I begun to focus on a cylindrical design. The first design focused on improving the cutting function whilst sacrificing practicality. The initial concept used a cutter with an embedded collection tray, and a magnum-styled 6 slot chamber that housed each different-sized ampoule; however, the design came with many limitations. Whilst designing to resolve each limitation of the initial design, I placed myself in the viewers shoes, attempting to improve the ease and ergonomics of the product when in use, resulting in :
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