This upcoming October, Machine Design and Electronic Design will be hosting the 2nd Medical Device Technology Exchange (MDTX) in San Diego. The MDTX conference will bring together experts on medical devices and the medical engineering industry together to highlight the new technological innovations changing the industry. Our profile series will highlight our expert speakers that will be at MDTX. For more information on attending the event, visit the MDTX site.
Jennifer Fraser—Director of User Experience, Macadamian
Who are you and what is your background in engineering and in the medical device industry?
My name is Jennifer Fraser, and I am the director of user experience at Macadamian. I have a Masters in architecture, but have focused on user experience design for the last 20 years of my career.
What is your conference topic and why is it important for the medical device industry?
I am co-facilitating a workshop on journey mapping and how it can inform device design. Journey Mapping is an important tool for user-centered design and helps product stakeholders understand gaps and opportunities in the experience of people using their product.
What is the biggest issue when designing a medical device?
Understanding how that device will fit into the existing ecosystem of its target user, and the implications that the introduction of that device will have on that system.
What new technology, in your opinion, will change medical devices forever?
The widespread adoption of smart speakers and, therefore, the broader acceptance of voice user interfaces.
What’s the most important thing you can impart to the readers, a teaser, if you will, for what they can expect to hear during your session at the MDTX event?
Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. Employing user experience research and design methodologies helps to reduce the risk when introducing a new service or technology.
Anything else you would like to add about this topic or yourself that readers would be interested to hear?
I think that we are at an interesting point in time in our industry, at the intersection between data science and user experience design. With sensors and device usage tracking, we now have access to so much information about what people are doing with our products, we can intersect that information with user experience research to understand why they are doing it.
