Speculative Co-design: a framework for enhancing the usability of medical devices through iterative, speculative, collaboration with medical device recipients.

Use errors are the leading cause of failures with medical devices. This thesis examines how contemporary methods of industrial design research, and practice, can better include users in the medical device design process. This collaborative process uncovers information about how these devices will be used, through investigative prototyping practices. These practices encourage collaborative speculation on the future of devices, within the early formative stages of research and development. These methods are applied and evaluated through a series of design projects in collaboration with medical device manufacturer Cochlear Limited.