It’s been my experience that color schema on medical products is not very important, with big caveat. I know that’s anathema to design at any level or stage but here’s why, depending on scenario.
The purchaser is an institution. Where color scheme specifically contributes beneficially to function then an institutional decision maker may be influenced to recommend to purchasing your model over competitor’s.
Generally with medical products there’s no element of choice in use, therefore color as a marketing tool is irrelevant. I.e. you don’t choose to use that aspirator, splint, surgical stapler, oxygen cart, etc.
The big caveat sort of contradicts my points above. These points apply assuming the company has a coherent color scheme in place. I have experienced competing medical device companies with coherent product design colour schema outperform companies with poor or inconsistent color schema. Similarly, medical device companies that redevelop new, coherent color scheme for existing and new products seem to very quickly improve sales.
In my 20+ years experience in this area I’d say 99% of medical products are (near)white with select accent color(s).
Manufacturability may affect color choice. Many medical products are low volume, custom coloring is expensive for anything other than painting and printing. There may also be performance issues; light therapy devices may require black.
It’s a different scenario if the medical device is personal owned, home use and travel. In this case I would collect samples of competitor products as well as similar medical or therapeutic devices and make presentation of any format for study.
Color trending is still not too important as these medical products are usually long term use, even for life, often in private. Devices targeted for children almost universally maintain the bright color meme, for no defensible reason I’ve ever discovered.
I tend to think color trending overall for any medical device is irrelevant due to the choice issue: you have to have it vs. want or desire. The device is prescribed or recommended or often chosen based on what your pharmacy stocks. They are usually used in private.
Overall my experience is that any coherent simple color scheme is fine for medical products. Cogent arguments can be made for white+accents or bright colors. For medical products, due to lack of choice in use, I do not believe in the color as communicating emotion as important design or marketing tool or argument. As long as it’s coherent, and the user interface is well layed out, colors, text, icons, etc.
, etc… In the end if you can defend your choice then that’s what matters.
