Articles

The following selected articles are by Stephen B. Wilcox, Ph.D., FIDSA, the founder of Design Science. Steve is a pioneer in the field of product-design research. He holds a B.S. in Psychology and Anthropology from Tulane University, a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Penn State, and a Certificate in Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been working in product development for over 25 years, a period during which he has developed several of the methodologies that are now in widespread use for fitting products to people. Dr. Wilcox headed the Human Factors Special Interest Section of the Industrial Designers Society of America for a number of years. He is the author of over 60 articles on human factors, design research, and related topics, and is the co-author, with Michael Wiklund, of the Taylor & Francis (CRC Press) book, Designing Usability into Medical Products.

Ethnographic Research and the Problem of Validity

Stephen B. Wilcox, PhD, FIDSA
MD&DI
Used correctly, ethnographic research can provide hard data for guiding a device company’s business decisions… Download PDF

High-Stakes Design

Stephen B. Wilcox, PhD, FIDSA
Innovation
It’s easier to focus your attention when a design mistake has a high probability of killing somebody or – from the opposite point of view – when your good design has the opportunity of saving hundreds or thousands of lives… Download PDF

Eight Ways to Kill Innovation

Stephen B. Wilcox, PhD
Product Development Insight
Medical device manufacturers are supposed to thrive on change. Why, then,do so many of them make innovation difficult?… Download PDF

Applying Universal Design to Medical Devices

By Stephen B. Wilcox, PhD
Device Design
As more and more complex medical devices are being operated at home, manufacturers need to develop them with disabled users in mind… Download PDF

Ethnographic Methods for New Product Development.

By Stephen B. Wilcox and William J. Reese
Design & Development
Product developers who observe end-users’ behavior in the actual environment of use generate tangible, workable information about a device – and the requirements of the people who use it… Download PDF