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The study presented here was made in collaboration with a medical device manufacturer. Normally, the device manufacturer uses verbal self-reporting protocols, interviews and observations in their formative usability tests during product development. The objective of our study was to investigate whether the use of eye-tracking technology can contribute to the data collection and bring new data and knowledge into the product development. The use of eye-tracking provided five unique insights and findings. Although the evaluated significance of them varied, a couple of findings stands out as important, indicating that the use of eye-trackers can indeed contribute positively to the results obtained from a usability test based on traditional ethnographic methods. It should be noted that use of eye-tracking requires additional time, resources and technical skills including optimal light conditions. However, with the promising perspectives in mind, eye-tracking is recommendable as an additional tool for usability studies.

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This study investigates how narratives and storytelling in relation to the delivery of a medical device to a patient influence the psychological effect of the device on the patient. The effect was investigated in a pilot study designed as a randomized control experiment in which an experimental group was exposed to positive narratives and storytelling in delivery of cosmetic breast enhancing surgery. The control group went through the same surgical procedures but without hearing these positive stories. Results show that the experimental group reported significantly more positive user experiences than the patients who were not exposed to the stories. It is concluded that narratives and storytelling enhance a positive psychological outcome and that more research in this area could help design the delivery of medical devices to patients.

Ethnographic research methods are increasingly popular within the general field of Human Factors, usability, user experience and design. Through a case story from the development and design of a medical device called 3D Surgery – a decision aid to be used in surgeon-patient consultations for cosmetic breast surgery – the presentation exemplifies the value and efficiency of the use of rapid ethnography used as stand-alone method and in combination with other methods. The case study describes an iterative approach encompassing continuous adjustment of method repertoire as well as continuous adjustment of use of analytical tools through which insights into the specific context of use are built. The case study further illustrates how the pre-surgery consultation and decision making process of the patient can be analyzed, and how the knowledge acquired can be transferred into design criteria for the 3D Surgery System.