Justin wrote, à propos of his design thesis:

‘By the way the phrase “form follows function” is grossly missed used; one isn’t dependent by the other. They are both important throughout the design process, and care equal.’

They are _not_ equal. Complexity is bad; simplicity is good. Add MP3-playing capabilities to an insulin pump’s firmware, and the complexity of testing (never mind actually writing the code) just went up as the _product_ of the complexity of each component. That is why we have engineers building those things; designers get — maybe — to provide input on the shape of the case.

Martin Jensen wrote:

‘Last year I upgraded to a Paradigm, and it still has some dumb features. Really dumb. Like, for instance, if you’re in a hurry and you just changed your set and you forget to press the button to get out of Prime mode, it just sits there for hours without warning you. Meanwhile it delivers NO insulin.’

Your pump will alarm every fifteen minutes while it is in suspend mode. That includes it being in priming state. I recommend consulting an ENT or audiologist.

Cheers,
Felix.

Ack! That IS bad! My Cozmo will beep until I press “done”, so I’ve never had that problem! The Cozmo is also waterproof, looks fairly decent, and can use ANY infusion set brand.

I think the problem is that the majority of pumpers are given MiniMed pumps, which (to me) do lack an aesthetically pleasing design. There are better options out there right now, which have been proven effective and safe.

Although I expect “diabetes supplies” to look like diabetes supplies, I can understand where people are coming from.

Especially those who are teens, fashionistas, artists, and “gadget” people. I would love to have a VERY cool looking pump, but as I hide my discrete grey Cozmo anyway, it really wouldn’t make a difference to me personally. I do think we should have a say in what we want though. Companies who don’t poll their potential customers lack insight.

In my design I have made many innovations in the design of the pump, CGM, and controller.

But for a child to use and understand the devices I put child-like styling on the devices, and made the interface understandable for the child.

The child can understand blood sugars and the effects of diet exercise and health, and grow up knowledgeable and healthy.

Good aesthetic design can make a person feel better and be intuitive to use. Many devices induce frustration and stress, and fail in designing for a person.

I’m presenting my thesis next Wednesday the 18th at Philadelphia University, then starting Friday May 4th it will be on display for a week, at The Design Center in center city Philadelphia. Anyone interested in coming to my presentation please e-mail me siebel2@philau.edu.

-Justin Siebel

By the way the phrase “form follows function” is grossly missed used; one isn’t dependent by the other. They are both important throughout the design process, and care equal.

Waterproofness? No-brainer. I once jumped into a pool without noticing my 508 was still on my hip — and I was 40! Good thing I had a donated spare in the closet while we sent off for a (48 hour) replacement. If I was parent to a diabetic child, this would be on the must-have list. But why not every freeking pump? This is basically a body part to us. Would you be willing to live with a knee that wasn’t waterproof? Duh.

Last year I upgraded to a Paradigm, and it still has some dumb features. Really dumb. Like, for instance, if you’re in a hurry and you just changed your set and you forget to press the button to get out of Prime mode, it just sits there for hours without warning you. Meanwhile it delivers NO insulin.

The real design problem, in my eyes, is the infusion set racket. Basically, we have each manufacturer coming up with a unique form factor and selling the dang things for $$$ a pop. This is market-based healthcare at its finest. If the market pressure was exerted by purchasers (i.e. consumers, employers, government) rather than controlled by the sellers (manufacturers, health plans), then we would have a standard for the consumables (every infusion set would work with every standard pump, purchasers would insist on standard for reimbursement), which would create competition and price/quality wars rather than the current collusive practice where manufacturers just compete for market share at a given price point, and insurers haggle for discounts while ignoring the bigger problem.

With so many un-pumped diabetics in the country, the current “design” of the market is shameful.

Amy Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design in their products. Diabetes test and monitoring devices tend to b…

Amy Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design in their products. Diabetes test and monitoring devices tend to b…

Amy Tenderich, author of the Diabetes Mine web log, wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs requesting his help in getting diabetes device manufacturers to incorporate more industrial design in their products. Diabetes test and monitoring devices tend to b…