Product design


Customer feedback the starting point


Safehinge Primera says it worked with architects, clinicians, facilities managers, infection control leads, and other key stakeholders, for 18 months to develop its award-winning Safehinge Symphony en-suite door. As Shaun Ridley, one of five product designers at the specialist supplier of doorsets, door, and window hardware to the mental health and education sectors, explains, it is the latest product to come out of the company’s comprehensive design process; the starting point is invariably undertaking customer research to determine needs and requirements before even starting to think about designing potential solutions.


The award-winning Safehinge Primera en-suite door is revolutionising mental health environments – enhancing safety and improving the patient experience. The product is the result of many months of painstaking research and development, involving more than 120 stakeholders across 20 NHS and private providers, and a team of our own in-house designers and engineers.


The Safehinge Primera design process is


different to that of many other companies, as we avoid taking existing solutions and merely trying to make incremental improvements. Instead, we look at the problem we are trying to solve with a blank canvas, and decide the best approach based on the design brief. The design brief is one of the most important aspects for Safehinge Primera, as we believe it ensures that the end solution is right for the customer, and doesn’t just make use of an existing component, potentially compromising the outcome.


VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER When developing the Symphony en-suite door, the team worked with architects, clinicians, facilities managers, infection control leads, and other key stakeholders, over a period of 18 months. During this time we took a ‘blank canvas’ approach, initially focusing on researching the problem to understand the needs of different users and viewing the product requirements through their eyes. It was this thorough and methodical approach which resulted in the door being presented with the Product Innovation Award at the 2017 Design in Mental Health Awards, with the judges describing it as ‘lifesaving’. This is now Safehinge Primera’s second time winning the Innovation Award.


Philip Ross, Safehinge Primera’s commercial


director, explains: “The en-suite door is the latest product to come out of our comprehensive design process, which is something we have


Safehinge Primera’s commercial director, Philip Ross, says: “The en-suite door is the latest product to come out of our comprehensive design process, which is something we have developed over the past four or five years since we began to operate in the mental health sector.”


developed over the past four or five years since we began to operate in the mental health sector and realised the sensitivities of what happens when products don’t factor in all needs. Quite often companies launch products not fully considered and tested, something we would class as a prototype, into wards, when they should not be anywhere near a live environment. More often than not, people who come up with a design idea at the outset are already biased that this is the solution, restricting their ability to objectively assess the product.


A DIFFERENT APPROACH “We have tried to change that whole approach. We focus intensively on carrying out customer research to determine needs and requirements before we even start to think about designing potential solutions. We design with a blank sheet of paper, and ask ourselves ‘What does this product need to achieve?’, continually sense checking our ideas against the design brief. Sometimes the answers are ‘whacky’ and silly, and we won’t run with them, but it’s important to put all these together to see what could be.”


Safehinge Primera says: “The perfect product doesn’t exist, so you have to make compromises along the way. We use customer feedback to decide where best to flex.”


CONFLICTING NEEDS Having already designed a number of products in conjunction with mental health specialists, we have built up a reputation and a strong national network of willing contributors, which enables us to more easily develop and test innovations.


THE NETWORK JANUARY 2018 23


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