Sean Hägen made an indelible impact on the field of medical device and healthcare design throughout his impressive 30+ year career. As the Principal and Founder of BlackHägen Design, he spearheaded numerous successful projects across diverse industries, with a particular emphasis on user-centric innovation and usability testing. Sean's relentless pursuit of excellence led to the creation of the IDSA Medical Design Conference, a groundbreaking platform for designers to share insights and knowledge within the medical device realm. Additionally, he sat on IDSA’s Board of Directors and played a pivotal role in launching the IDSA Patient Safety Task Force, demonstrating his commitment to ensuring safer and more effective product design.
According to one of his nominators, “Sean leaves a legacy for his work in patient safety, design, usability, teaching, and giving back to the community. His efforts reaching into other professional societies […] have given others an increased understanding and exposure to the benefits of industrial design.”
Product Semantics in the Healthcare Space
The presentation is an adaptation of a white paper on the subject of the science that links aesthetics and usability. The design process based on product semantics will be explained, integrated with human factors engineering, to meet the unique challenges of designing medical devices and UX. The process of a user understanding the operation of a device is a complex series of biases, interactions, reasoning and expectations that starts with an initial assessment. This is especially critical when there is no product training or a significant lapse between use and training.
In healthcare, the initial interaction with a device is often critical to the well-being of a person. The approach of product semantics, which includes affordances, enables utilizing the visceral impact of a device’s aesthetic to communicate interaction cues. The following are summary points for the presentation:
——————————-
Fireside Chat
Join a fireside chat with three leading design experts discussing the current state of medical and commercial healthcare design. The conversation will be casual and collaborative in seeking the true impact of COVID-19 and its reach and impact on medical design consulting.
Speakers:
Tor Alden, FIDSA, Principal, HS Design
Sean Hägen, IDSA, Founding Principal, BlackHägen Design
Dan Harden, Founder & Principal Designer, Whipsaw
Statement of Candidacy
If elected, my plan is to implement the initiatives I started in my first term, including re-tooling the Sections to harmonize with the categories in IDEA, and ultimately be a repository of continuing professional education resources for IDSA membership. This will include providing the individual Section leadership and general members with a forum, and specific mechanisms, for the sharing of knowledge and interdisciplinary resources specific to the evolving array of industry niches that is industrial design. Through this objective, Sections will support and enable the promotion of IDSA’s value proposition to our members with continuing education tailored to the diverse specialties in which designers lead industry.
These strategies were demonstrated in 2013-2015 with presentation content representing the most active sections at the IDSA International Conference in Seattle and in webinar series. Examples where my term as Section VP enabled section leadership to provide value to our members include events and webinars by following sections: Women in Design; Ecodesign; Design Protection; Medical; and Materials & Processes.
My contribution to IDSA leadership of a design-driven culture, in collaboration with headquarters staff, will include the management and development of Sections-related operations and infrastructure; including the following responsibilities:
My history of service to the members of the IDSA includes:
