There’s no question that medical equipment – usually large and bulky machines – is rarely designed; engineered perhaps but with the wellness-associated benefits of aesthetics remaining an after-thought. For many, the devices meant to alleviate symptoms or monitor health are often large, cold, and conspicuously clinical, making it difficult for users to feel anything but “sick” while using them.
Luminate, an Irish medical startup, is changing that perception with Lily, a new wearable headgear designed to reduce chemotherapy-induced hair loss. Partnering with London-based industrial design studio BLOND, the two companies are rewriting the rules for what medical devices can look and feel like – starting with empathy and aesthetics.
As much as humans like to think of themselves as wholly self-sufficient and uninfluenced by the perceived judgement of others, we remain social beings fully affected by those around us and the implicit socio-cultural customs we’ve formed over time. As tech companies begin to fully harness the mollifying and softening power of design – the discipline’s full suite of formal, visual, and functional strategies – these essential tools are taking on a humanizing, even concealed, appearance. This is achieved without jeopardizing performance.
Cue: Lily, a new hyper-refined headgear that helps chemotherapy patients manage the dysmorphic hair loss that often comes with this type of cancer treatment. The technology – using compression and cooling to minimize the effects – has been around for a while but has almost always been administered through immovable infrastructure; sizable components that occupy entire rooms.
“As scientists – we’re not experts in how people emotionally relate to physical objects in their environment,” says Luminate co-founder and CEO Aaron Hannon. “That’s why we brought in BLOND. [The studio’s] approach goes beyond user-centred design to focus on how people connect with the things they use everyday… to translate empathy into form was exactly what we needed to make our science accessible to the real world.”
Produced using recycled PET felt – pressed into an anthropomorphically conducive form – Lily’s user-friendly touch screen is intuitive and user-friendly, yet discrete. One is able to walk around wearing the device as if having just dismounted a bike. Few know what’s actually going on under the surface. The device is secured and removed using a durable zipper. Magnetically fastened straps – an innovation that should enter the cycling gear industry as well – ensures total security.
“Medical devices often focus purely on function, overlooking the emotional and human context in which they’re used,” says BLOND founder and CEO James Melia. “When Luminate approached us with Lily, we immediately saw the potential to reframe it – not just as a piece of medical equipment, but as something a person could feel comfortable wearing in public, even proud to own.”
Taking inspiration from everyday objects, he and his team turned what could have been a clinical product into one that’s personal. “Every design decision was made to empower the user and promote comfort,” Melia adds.
The melding of seemingly disparate fields – the fortuitous outcome of complementing hard expertise with softer skillsets – is a future-forward approach like no other. One wonders what other results – in and outside of the tech space – could be derived from this dynamic mindset.
Lily is in the final stages of development and is undergoing FDA approval for use in the United States. For more information on Lily by Luminate and BLOND, visit blond.cc.
Photography courtesy of BLOND.