Easy does it, easy peasy, easy-to-use…for dental imaging products, “easy” means completing a task with the least amount of effort. And when it comes to touchscreen development, Gendex worked tirelessly on the screens for the GXDP-300 and GXDP-700, the dental digital imaging products. The idea was to make them “intuitive.” I guess you could say that the end goal was to have a screen that takes the least amount of effort to take the image and also saves brain power.
So, what goes into making these screens intuitive? State-of-the-art electronics and VOC—Voice of the Customer. Not leaving it solely in the hands of knowledgeable engineers, the development team sought design advice from clinicians, the folks that will actually use the systems in the dental practice on a daily basis.
The team presented various screens to these practitioners, and asked them to demonstrate how they would “take a pan or 3D scan” without giving any hints as to how the screen actually works. In this way, they could tell if the icons and the movement through the different panels really make sense. It’s a process of observing users, making changes, observing users again, making changes again…until the optimal design is achieved.
As you can see, this VOC process is not quick or easy (no pun intended). It takes time and effort. But in the long-run, Gendex ended up with a graphic user interface for each system, fondly called “GUI” (gooey), that is just another way the company keeps dental teams easily moving through their workdays.
Above is a picture of one of the GUI screens for the GXDP-700, and here’s a link to show the GXDP-300’s GUI in action. Be sure to check out all the videos on the Gendex YouTube Channel!
