Product Design & Safety

How do you effectively detect safety challenges during product design?

Consumer products and services can be made more likely to be used safely, effectively, and with more satisfaction when the design considers needs, capabilities, and limitations of intended users, as well as a user mental model that captures typical user thought processes.

Exponent understands that knowledge, skills, and abilities vary — from vision and hearing, to manual dexterity, strength, and reach — and can lead people to use products differently. Likewise, human cognitive functions — including attention, memory, information processing, appreciation and understanding of hazards, and problem solving — can affect how a user engages with a product. The environment in which a product or service is used — the context of use — may also have an impact on interactions with products.

Exponent's multidisciplinary scientists and engineers routinely test the usability of products with human participants, who are representative of the intended users, to better understand user-product interactions and hazards in addition to complying with regulations, such as the FDA's 510(k) or PMA submission requirements. As part of these types of analyses, our team searches for and evaluates existing records of product-use-related injuries to help determine whether product designs present unique accident patterns.

Safety issues can typically be detected during early product design phases, and Exponent often performs risk analyses during those early phases to help manufacturers make informed decisions during product development.

Capabilities and Services

Applying human behavioral data in risk analyses can be powerful for improving safety in product design, making appropriate recall decisions, and developing design refinements to address customer complaints or safety issues.

Consumer Product Design, Usage & Injury Analysis

Medical Device Human Factors

Child Safety

Regulatory Analysis & Standards

Businesses benefit from a deep understanding of the evolving regulatory requirements of the markets in which they create and operate. Different countries and regulatory bodies can use different methodologies to assess risk and can have very different views on product and process safety — Exponent's global teams can support your compliance with regulatory requirements and other safety standards worldwide — for your products as well as manufacturing and industrial operations.

Summary of Services

For 50+ years, we've thrived on solving unstructured problems that require bespoke solutions. Some of our services include:

Exponent performs the following product design and safety services:

Ideation support
User requirements development
Task and workflow analysis
Hazard identification and risk assessment
Product-related injury data analysis
System design requirements development
Participatory design and prototype development
User testing (health and safety, usability, comprehension)
Analysis of use errors during user and product testing
Production support
Application of scientific human performance data to all product design phases

Experts

Our global and comprehensive expertise across industries gives us a deep understanding of current challenges, best industry practices, and the implications of emerging technologies.