Motorica. Hand prosthesis
Industrial design for a Motorica's new motorized hand prosthesis.
Motorica is a Russian-based engineering company which produces hand prostheses.
Research
Designing a prosthetic arm is a very complex and delicate task. A design research process was conducted, conducting a series of in-depth interviews with prosthesis users and medical professionals. The project required not only the creation of an industrial design, but also the definition of a product philosophy and a code of ethics.
It was found that most users are dissatisfied with almost all the products on the market. The most valuable thing turned out to be that sometimes they want the prosthesis to be as natural as possible and not attract unnecessary attention, and sometimes they want it to be their message to the outside world.
Thus, the Design Spectrum we presented ranged from 'clearly robotic' to 'more than human' and from 'fashion' to 'natural'. After a long discussion of the philosophy and Cyborg Manifesto, the client chose to go in the more natural everyday direction.
Working with the concepting stage, we suggested a changeable pad as a possible solution for prosthesis customisation. The idea was to make a few removable pads covering the top of the prosthesis and allow the user to choose between them or make their own with a foil or paper inserted under a transparent pad. The client absolutely loved the idea.
www.global.motorica.org
Prototype