Content area
Full text
From the General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS) design studio in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Lawrence (Murf) Murphy works with designers across the planet to create the diagnostic imaging machines so crucial to medicine today.
Machines such as CT scanners, ultrasounds, or MRI devices have countless parts that require the deft touch of industrial designers. "We're responsible for the look and feel of anything that comes in contact with people. Form, color, textures, displays, buttons-all are important to make our products safe, comfortable, and efficient," says Murf, who is Chief Industrial Designer at GEMS.
Getting the concept right the first time is key to the design process at GEMS. The designers in Waukesha work closely with studios in France, Japan, and India to ensure all design angles are covered. They rely heavily on brainstorming, often in real-time so that decisions can be made quickly. "We're not happy until everyone has had a crack at a design," says Murf.
Real-time global brainstorming is now within the realm of possibility, thanks to interactive tablets and Alias SketchBook Pro. Murf and his team take a quick screen grab, sketch over it, and then email their ideas to their global colleagues for instant feedback. Add in the better-than-real artist's tools provided by Alias SketchBook Pro, and the team is creating many more ideas in less time. This is the first time Murf s studio has been able to replace expensive traditional artist's materials with a digital sketching solution, without compromising the quality or quantity of the sketching that Murf believes passionately is at the core of good industrial design.
Global Collaboration, in Real Time
In Murf's office, designers gather around the Wacom Cintiq 18 SX tablet on his desk. With a screen of 15 × 17 inches, it's just like drawing on a big pad of paper. Murf is emphatic, "Once designers use a tablet on which they can sec what they're drawing, they just don't want to go back to the simple input tablets that require them to look at the monitor...