Surgery Robot

Responsibilities
Project Context
Tools
  • ID design
  • UX/ UI design
  • Real case
  • 2018-2020
  • Creo
  • Keyshot
  • Adobe XD
  • Ps, Ai
In compliance with the non-disclosure agreement I signed, I have omitted sensitive data and obfuscated figures. All information in this case study is my own and does not reflect the views of Hurwa. All images displayed have been sourced from press releases.
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This project is divided into two phases. During my internship period, I was mainly responsible for product design of surgical instruments. During my full-time role, I was mainly responsible for UX and UI.

Phase 1- Industrial Design Intern

Task 1: Medical probes and reference frames
Requirement and limitations:
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  • Make the blunt probe and the sharp probe easy to distinguish
  • Make the Femur frame and Tibia frame easy to distinguish
  • The distance of the optic target balls of each tool are fixed
  • The design needs to match the surgeons habit of holding the probes

Tackle the problem

After getting familiar with the TKA surgery by watching videos and observing the lab testing, I talked to surgeons about their needs. Basically, they wanted to distinguish the blunt probe and the sharp probe easily. Therefore, I played with the shape for easy recognition while maintaining the function.
The design of the probe's form primarily reflects "sharp" and "blunt", while the inspiration for the shape of the reference frames drawn from the shapes of the femur and tibia, allowing doctors to quickly identify it.

Test and Iteration

Problems through user testing: Some surgeons prefer to hold the very bottom of the probe (Left Pic)

Iteration: After testing more models with surgeons, there is no specific shape designed for the holding part. Instead, the shape is regular and surgeons can hold either higher part or lower part of the probes( Right Pic).
Task 2: End Effector of the Robot Arm
The engineer team gave me the inner part of the End Effector and asked me to design a shell that:
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Tackle the problem

By observing surgeries and asking about their habit of holding the end effector, I roughly constructed several prototypes and 3D printed them for user testing. The prototypes were installed on the robotic arm and tested by 5 surgeons. I recorded the results and interviewed each of them to collect feedbacks for further iteration.
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Final

Phase 2- UX Designer

Task: Interfaces of pre-operation plan and navigation system
Challenge:
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Result

Impact

What I learned

Next Step

This is my first UI project ever and I am very grateful for the trust the team has placed in me. It started my interest in UI and UX.Admittedly, there are so many things I would like to improve on this project because of the time constraints and my lack of control over complex systems as a newbie at that time. I am still proud of what we came up with. More importantly, I enjoy working with the team and I learned a lot from the professional designers, engineers, surgeons and developers.
I have always hoped to collaborate with surgeons again, perhaps incorporating AR into surgical navigation.Recently, I found such an opportunity: designing a variable focus magnifying glass for otolaryngology surgeons. In my communication with the doctor, I learned that they are also interested in augmented reality. If our magnifying glass is successful, the next step would be to consider incorporating surgical navigation functionality.

Thank you for watching! Drop me an email.

→ Huanghanhana@gmail.com