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Johnson & Johnson

Leading JNJ's Orthopaedic Design Strategy

2015  |  Design Manager

DePuy Synthes is the largest provider of orthopaedic solutions in the world. I led the design strategy for the industry's most complicated knee replacement system: Attune Revision Total Knee Solution.

 

This design strategy was scaled across the entire product portfolio to create a consistent visual brand language.

Business Objective

Create a powerful and unique visual brand language that can be scaled across the entire product portfolio.

Design Objective

Design strong visual elements that can be scaled accordingly based on form, function, cost, or manufacturing process.

THE CHALLENGE

The Attune Primary Total Knee Replacement Solution has an elegant and visually appearing brand language. In addition to its design, the ergonomics and human factors considerations truly makes it the world's most premium orthopaedic solution.

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Meshing art and science with Johnson & Johnson's brand was truly a creative and engineering challenge. Now, taking that same sophisticated visual brand language and executing it across the entire product portfolio was impossible.

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This is where I embraced the challenge

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I came to Johnson & Johnson midway through the Attune Primary TKR design and helped finished the project by designing several of the remaining instruments including the Pin Jack, several Solo instruments (one-time use), and the entire Patella replacement system.

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With a firm understanding of the proper visual design language, I was asked to lead the Attune Revision Total Knee Replacement Solution as well as several other key projects needing similar design support. By supporting knees, hips, shoulders, and ankles, I knew almost all the projects our company was working on, the challenges behind each project, and any limitations of our design language being implemented.

 

With this experience and knowledge, I was asked to LEAD the design effort behind creating a sophisticated and scalable design language that would cover our entire product portfolio.

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JNJ'S MASTER BRAND

At first, I needed to understand how and what was required from a visual design language, then what elements would scale appropriately, while what elements required more additional options. For this design strategy to work, I had to focus on a specific project and create a MASTER BRAND GUIDELINE that would incorporate the brand, the strategy, and the execution.

DESIGN ELEMENTS

From anthropometric driven angles and spans to visually appealing transitions, I focused on how we could scale this beautiful design language to fit all types of instruments, materials and manufacturing processes across our entire portfolio.

DESIGN MARKINGS

Markings are an important part of the design language, therefore, understanding the types of processes to mark clearly and legibly was important to our design. Placement of the marking was just as critical as having it on there. Users tend to use markings for visual feedback, especially during operation (understanding if the instrument is in its right place).

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Markings are also critical in ensuring the proper instruments end up in the right kit. Most instruments are washed together after surgery and a cleaning technician must rekit the instruments afterwards. The lack of clear markings that lead to improper kitting is one of the biggest issues with surgeries today.

COLORS, TEXTURES, AND DESIGN DETAILS

Another important aspect to the visual brand language is the use of color and textures. I had to understand the different types of manufacturing processes in order to recommend what was acceptable or not. Additionally, I also looked at how we could use design curves and features to increase the intuitiveness for assemblies.

PROCESSES, TRANSITIONS, AND KITTING

Other design strategy elements included how teams should approach workflows, how we can utilize the visual brand language to boost usability, and how we can improve our simple kitting design to make tremendous user experience impacts.