Product and Experience Design
Delcon and Cefriel’s “Milano” smart scale wins the 2022 Compasso d’Oro
News
June 20, 2022
Milan, 21 June – The new scale for blood donation, called ‘Milano’ in homage to the Italian capital of design, is one of 20 winners of the XXVII edition of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award. The device, the product of a collaborative effort between Delcon, an Italian company specialising in the design and manufacture of medical devices and software for the blood supply chain, Cefriel, a centre of excellence for digital innovation, and the New York Blood Center, appeared in the ADI design Index 2021, a selection of the best Italian designs created each year by the permanent ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale, or Industrial Design Association) Design Observatory, which determines which products go on to compete for the Compasso d’Oro.
“The scale awarded the Compasso d’Oro is the confirmation that innovations in superior products are now possible by bringing together design and digital technology’ – notes Alfonso Fuggetta, the CEO of Cefriel. ‘In creating Milano, we took an agile design thinking approach that started with an analysis of the users’ needs to achieve the current solution. By following the principles of design thinking, we identified the end customer’s real needs and requirements.”
The "Milano" scale
The scale for blood donations was designed to meet the needs of the New York Blood Center. During the design stage, a team of ten people used a Cefriel and Delcon co-design process that started in 2018. This cooperation arose from the New York agency’s need to use sophisticated equipment in transport, given the far-flung distribution of travelling transfusion centres – often buses – in the United States.
“We are happy and so satisfied with this lovely prize, which confirms the effort we made in recent years to take a “design driven” approach in the creation of our products’ says Barbara Sala, the CEO of Delcon. ‘Our intent is always to centre the user in order to improve the ergonomic aspects of medical devices, which are essential to the functions of the workers who use them. We have other products that will appear on the market and we are developing them with the same philosophy in mind.”
The design thinking and digital approach
The scale has a modern design that breaks away from its archetype; it has a unique shape with soft lines that lets it balance its strong technological element with the user experience. The agile approach made it possible to test and validate each development in terms of ergonomics, device performance and interface usability during the design and engineering stage, thanks to the joint work and collaboration of the two Cefriel and Delcon teams.
The design for the “Milano” scale was researched to ensure the utmost in ease of handling and transport convenience. The device has a vertical structure and can be hooked to cots and armchairs. This encourages the operator to work in an erect posture because of the touch interface on the upper part of the device. The tray on the lower part of the device enables gravity-driven blood donation. The device allows 100 donations to be made in a single battery cycle, and then the battery is easily recharged in an external power station with six settings.
The “design thinking” approach also allowed a re-establishment of the relationship between the company that makes the medical device and the end customer, an improvement in the user experience, as well as putting a connected product on the market that can collect data and make the best interpretation of the customer’s needs to create supply chain value.
The design for the “Milano” scale was researched to ensure the utmost in ease of handling and transport convenience. The device has a vertical structure and can be hooked to cots and armchairs. This encourages the operator to work in an erect posture because of the touch interface on the upper part of the device. The tray on the lower part of the device enables gravity-driven blood donation. The device allows 100 donations to be made in a single battery cycle, and then the battery is easily recharged in an external power station with six settings.
The “design thinking” approach also allowed a re-establishment of the relationship between the company that makes the medical device and the end customer, an improvement in the user experience, as well as putting a connected product on the market that can collect data and make the best interpretation of the customer’s needs to create supply chain value.