Foot drop walking aid instrument is a kind of medical product that is worn on the knee joint and uses low-frequency pulse current to stimulate the common peroneal nerve to induce muscle contraction and simulate autonomous movement. While correcting abnormal gait, it repeatedly stimulates the brain to transmit movement pattern signals to realize the connection of nerve pathway, so as to promote the gradual recovery of walking function of the human body.
IDC in the UK has once again cooperated with its old customer Shenzhen Xinfengtong (XFT) to develop the fifth generation of foot droop walker for it. This is also the fourth design cooperation between IDC and XFT in this category.
The uniqueness and challenge of this generation of products is that the users of the products are children with cerebral palsy aged 6-13 years old. The design team needs to fully consider the characteristics of the users, reflect the unique product needs of this group in the design, and continue the excellent performance of wearable and usability in previous generations of products.

The framework of the product is still a wearable design that combines the host and the strap. The customer proposes that the host and the strap of this generation of products can be completely disassembled.
On the basis of determining the direction and reorganizing the use process of the new framework, the design team studied a large number of adult and child protective gear, sports equipment, wearable products, straps of various products and their wearing and connection methods on the market, so as to promote the team to generate a large number of valuable ideas in brainstorming.
Many of these ideas with high feasibility were made into early ergonomic straw models for internal testing, which provided a basis for further optimizing the connection between the strap and the host.
Introducing real users, I .e., school-age children, to conduct interviews makes the process of concept screening and iterative design more accurate, insightful and persuasive.
In addition to the connection mode of the strap, the user interview also covers the width of the strap, the skin-friendly nature of the strap material, the intuitive nature of the button position and semantics, and the user's preference for form and style.
The age range of the interviewed children was about 9-13 years old. In addition to listening to their feedback, the team also understood the concerns and preferences of the children's parents about the purchase of such products.
One of the biggest highlights of the design-using a wider strap and designing a strap limit decorative groove on the host, thus reducing the risk of the strap falling off from the host and improving the skin-friendly and stability of the equipment, comes from the common conclusion of user interviews and internal tests.

After subdividing the age groups of users, the design team investigated the design preferences of different subdivided groups. Combined with the research of children's products in the market and the real feedback of user research, IDC in the UK reached a consensus with customers and determined that the purpose of using pure color hosts with various patterns of straps to achieve customized products to meet personal preferences, so as to control the production cost, still able to meet the psychological needs of children of different ages and gender groups.
The design team designed a number of strap patterns for enterprises to choose. This design feature also adds new highlights to the product.

In order to ensure the landability of the design, the team contacted the fabric suppliers during the process of strap design to understand the production process, cost, effect and production restrictions of different fabrics, the connection mode between different fabrics and the production method of the final pattern, so as to select the most suitable production mode to achieve the unity of the design effect and the final production effect.
This also lays the foundation for the rapid production of products after design. At present, the product has been successfully listed.

The work of the UK IDC team involved in the Foot Drop Rehabilitation Training Instrument G5:
• Competition analysis
• User research
• Industrial Design
• CMF Design
• User testing
• Ergonomic design
• Prototyping
View Full Case: https://www.idcdesigncn.com/medical/G5-footdrop-device/
Understanding IDC Product Design UK: https://www.idcdesigncn.com/medical