Yo,
I completely agree that the sketching needs improvement. It’s something that I’ve been trying to work on every day before I go on an internship in June. Thanks for the advice on the verbal comm. side of the project!
Sprockets,
I was also surprised that there wasn’t a more sophisticated HypoKit available, considering the context of where and why it is intended to be used.
Stab is a very aggressive word, but it also really impacts what to do for that step. I like the idea of something like “thrust”, or even more basic like “push” or “press”, it really needs to be a balance between directly communicating the function without intimidating the user. I initially looked at just having the pictorial images without the text to make it as universal to use as possible, but I kept them as a redundant back-up.
The difference between the other products, from what is available online:
GlucaPen
-Primarily its’ small physical size. The end cap that requires twisting is therefore also very small, and has a small surface area to grip onto. Everything needs to be easily usable while panicked and possibly with shaking hands, which is generally not very easy when using something small and fiddly. It might even need to be used with gloved hands for those of you who live in cold climates, or by someone who doesn’t have full movement of their fingers. From a visual perspective, the larger device allows for bigger and more visible instructions.
-The resemblance to an Epi-Pen.There is also a tendency for injector products (EpiPen, Insulin, GlucaPen) to look slim and pen like, hence they look very similar. There should be a way to quickly distinguish one from the other; form, colour, label, size etc. This also leads to “How is it identified as a Hypokit?”. Neither of the other two clearly say Glucagon Hypokit, or even mention being a Hypokit at all on the actual device.
-I have been looking at the cartridge that they use however, as it is exactly what would work in my device. A reasonable proportion of the project was getting the internals to work (theoretically) for the sake of being innovative, and how it would be produced and put together. Using something that exists for the internals would let me focus more on the usability and instructions, this is the direction I’m looking at heading in.
Xeris
-Uses a new, stable form of glucagon. As far as I’m aware, they haven’t managed to get the pharmaceutical side of it working yet, and I wanted to use technology that is available now. It kept the project grounded, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a lot of substance outside of the verbal discussion. Once they get it working, it would need a standard auto injector style device without a mixing step. (Still a challenge, current auto-injectors still have their problems).
This feedback is very helpful, and thankyou for taking the time to look through and comment. I’ll hopefully be able to get some developments up soon.
Andrew.