Ex-It Medical

Like many of our clients, Ex-It is a medical-cosmetic device startup. Ex-It is planning to penetrate the market with a new line of products and they turned to us to devise and develop the design. Our first step in ensuring a correct design line that would serve us faithfully over the future product generations was to comprehensively research potential competitors, aesthetic trends, and materials and technology. We also studied the device’s end-users and target environment. In this case, dermatologists and beauticians working in starkly lit hospitals and private clinics. Our last step was to formulate the concepts that would be incorporated into the product’s design language; a language that would produce an unpretentiously elegant yet trendy product, resonating with an undertone of advanced technology. Harmonious, pleasant, clean, and flowing, were some of the keywords aired time and again in review sessions. The first Ex-It product was a patented device for treating fungal nail infections. Operated by a beautician or doctor, it is used to drill multiple minuscule holes in the infected nail which are then filled with a therapeutic agent.

Deep, site-specific delivery is one of this treatment’s greatest advantages over existing methods which are only applied to the surface and are therefore less effective. The product’s two units, the table, which is the base, and the hand-held instrument that is applied to the patient, both adhere to our brief’s design language. The hand-held instrument was a major challenge. It defied us to come up with a solution for packing all its electronic, mechanical, and optical components into a limited space while still keeping it comfortable to use for extended periods of time. Ergonomics, user interface, and user experience were fundamental aspects we addressed in resolving this brief. As this project’s managers we were required to cooperate with an array of professionals, mechanical engineers, electronics and software engineers, to name a few.  As is frequently the case in the fiercely competitive world of startups, time and timing were of the essence; this project claimed our outmost availability and demanded absolute commitment to our client.