Mingyu Liu

PROJECT DESCRIPTION This is an surgery video recording system project and its target market is the surgery operation room in hospitals. In the field of surgery, video recording is an important procedure. However, currently, there is no solution with easy-carry and easy-control devices. My customer is a scientist team which has once served in NASA. Therefore, they have the high-end imaging technology for this system and overall market position strategy for this product. However, they have no product developing experience nor market promotion plan. As a result, I joined their team to serve as product designer and product manager.

Surgeon is the end users of this video recording system. In addition, some of them may have used similar products. Therefore, their feedbacks are extremely important, as they could help us in catching the most vital elements and understanding the defects of our product compared with that from our rivals. Our technicians and I have visited a number of hospitals by telling surgeons our plan and requesting them to give some suggestions on our products. Our attention was paid to using environment (operation room), video recording process and wearing mode. We recorded down our interview process by taking pictures and recording audios.

In order to add more market competitiveness to our product, we needed to determine its core selling points before designing it. These selling points will provide guidance to product design and market promotion. I put forward below 5 elements for customer and they become the primary concepts for the product.

I have executed user’s behavior analysis and simulated the using process. During this period, I put all functions came to our mind on the board. After that, I analyzed user’s experience and technical feasibility. Therefore, I removed some irrational and unnecessary functions and divided the remained functions into different groups.

The whole system has a Host module, a head camera, a tablet, two transmitters and a case which can pack all of them. Surgeons wear the head camera, to record the whole procedure of operation. The camera send the video to transmitter, then the transmitter wirelessly send it to the Host module. Assistants control the recording by the tablet.

There are some slots on the surface of the host module, which are not only for storing accessories but also for charging. Moreover, besides handheld using, the tablet could be vertically plug into the host module and works as a monitor.

In the place with limited conditions, temporary occasions or during the transportation, the main machine is operational without getting it out of the shell. In this sense, shell is a part of the main machine.

HEAD CAMERA For a head camera, it’s hard to make a balance between stability and comfort during long surgeries especially for surgeons who wearing glasses. A glasses-shaped frame helps to distribute the weight of the camera on nose and the back of head. Base on the data gotten from massive measurements, the head camera could be compatible with most glasses. TRANSMITTERS The battery of transmitter with a limited duration is not enough to supply electricity for more than 4-5 hours long surgery. Dual transmitters could take turns charging while the other one is working. It guarantees a long duration of usage. TABLET Surgeons could do some simple actions by voice control, meanwhile their assistants use the tablet to undertake more operations.

As an entire recording system which includes lots of accessories, it has a poor portability to carry on from room to room, or hospital to hospital. Accessories could be stored in the host module, and all of them could be packed into a particular case. There is no need to connect and disconnect the wires for carrying due to the ample space between the host and case.

The user’s interface design for this video recording system is extremely important. Therefore, when designing this product, I also needed to consider the interaction between software and users, so as to guarantee best user’s experience.