To balance my previous post about a bad user interface design, here’s an example of a good user interface design from Tom Peters. TP gushes over the design of his EpiPen, a device that lets users self-administer Epinephrine to prevent anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction.
The device is easy to use, comes with a good manual, and has a practice mode with feedback.
There’s a very nice related case study in Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma (relevant bits excerpted here. He discusses the development of an easy-to-inject insulin system by Novo at the same time Lilly developed much purer insulin. The latter was a huge engineering/scientific breakthrough by Lilly that made insulin less likely to be rejected by deriving it from humans rather than pigs. Novo developed an easy-to-inject insulin pen system that had the same old 1/10K rejection rate, but gained market share.