When Davin Stowell senses the onset of the flu, he takes his temperature, shoving the thermometer under his tongue until it hurts. "That's how I was trained to use a thermometer as a child," says Stowell, founder and chief executive of New York-based Smart Design, referring to the uncomfortable glass-and-mercury tubes of old.
Soon after states first started banning thermometers filled with mercury in 2002, digital versions of the familiar rodlike model began flooding the market. Their form factors echoed the bad ergonomics that Stowell and other adults remember from childhood.
"There was no reason for digital thermometers to look the same as the mercury thermometers, which all had the same stick design," says Stowell, sitting in the sprawling, sun-drenched headquarters of Smart in New York. "Digital thermometers all have a little sensor and a small circuit board. Why not remake it in a totally new way?"
AWARD-WINNING DESIGNS. Smart had the opportunity to give the thermometer a full makeover when, in 2001, Kaz -- a marketer and manufacturer of home and health-care products, some licensed under the Vicks brand -- approached Smart with the challenge to create more-efficient digital thermometers.
The result was not one, but three discrete devices, marketed together as the Vicks Life Stages series by Kaz: an infant-specific rectal thermometer, an armpit design for kids ages 2 to 6, and an oral one for those older than 4. The decision to create a trio of Vicks thermometers not only solved design problems in terms of user friendliness and accuracy but also helped build brand presence in drugstores.
Although Kaz won't disclose sales figures, it's clear that the new thermometers paid off in accolades from the medical and design communities, at least. The axillary (underarm) thermometer won a Gold IDEA award from the Industrial Design Society of America and BusinessWeek in 2004, and the rectal thermometer won a 2005 Medical Device Excellence Award. More recently, the rectal device was a finalist in the 2006 Personal/Health Care competition of the Housewares Design Awards, given by the International Housewares Assn.
DOCTORS' ORDERS. Accurately measuring a child's temperature is an important step in diagnosing influenza, or the flu, which claims 36,000 lives each year in the U.S. and sends 200,000 victims to hospitals, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
A key, marketing-driven concept behind the thermometer trio was to "develop a loyalty to the Vicks brand," says Smart's Stowell. But the designers' rejection of a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a new style of digital thermometer also reflects recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for choosing the best device for children of various ages: Buy specific instruments for different age groups.
The organization advises a rectal digital thermometer as the most accurate tool for reading the temperature of a child younger than 3 years old. For kids 4 to 5 years old, an oral thermometer is most appropriate. Digital ear thermometers, like Braun's Thermoscan, might provide the quickest results thanks to fast processors, but the AAP cautions that excessive earwax might interfere with the accuracy of the reading, and that incorrect insertion might affect its efficiency. In general, the AAP endorses axillary thermometers for ages 3 months and older, but with caution, as most armpit designs aren't as accurate as other types of thermometers.
Vicks isn't alone in redesigning kids' digital thermometers in imaginative new ways -- although most of the competition seems to focus on oral devices. Timex has released the "talking" AccuCurve thermometer, which has a flexible mouth probe that fits comfortably under a tongue and which "speaks" a child's temperature. Brands like Omron and Lumiscope have marketed digital thermometers that resemble and function like pacifiers.
STICKING POINT. Chris Craig, Kaz's vice-president for Healthcare Marketing and Corporate Business Development, says the company asked Smart to start with the armpit device, "because there was an unfulfilled need for better axillary thermometers."
The Smart team first looked at governmental databases on body measurements to determine an appropriate size for the new thermometer. "There is surprisingly little data on children's bodies, beyond height and weight statistics," says Stowell.
So the designers measured the armpits and arms of 10 children aged 2 to 6 years old. They observed how the kids inserted various models of thermometers, and also asked kids to place sheets of liquid crystal -- the type used in 1970s mood rings, which changes color according to body heat -- to find hot zones. "We found that kids always put the thermometers too far back from the accurate point. This indicated a specific problem with the stick design."
Of course, the designers also wanted to address the more elusive notion of comfort. They came up with a working definition, based on the children's observations: "no painful pressure points and not cold."
RADICAL NEW SHAPE. Other dilemmas that the Smart team faced included the fact that most kids had a hard time sitting still long enough for an adult to read the thermometer, that it was hard for children to hold thermometers in place, and that a lot of kids were curious and wanted to see the digital numbers. Plus, the thermometer needed to look kid-friendly, but also serious enough to signal to parents that it was a legitimate medical tool.
The idea was to keep in mind "both intuition and measurement. We needed to come up with something longer and flatter," says Stowell. One early design looked too much like a sword and was deemed too scary. Another, with a long chord-like appendage and round face, was too reminiscent of a yo-yo and declared too playful. Preliminary concepts were digitally rendered in 3-D, then made from plastic foam.
The designers kept going back to the proverbial drawing board, eventually settling on a radical new shape that looks like a twisted lollipop, and sets the surface that displays the child's temperature at an angle that's easy to read. Kaz's Craig brought a foam model of this design home to his 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter. "She just popped it under her arm," says Craig, "and I knew we got it."
"RIGHT DESIGN LANGUAGE." After the armpit thermometer, Smart next worked on the infant rectal thermometer. Efficient temperature-taking and flu diagnosis is particularly important with "infants, who can't communicate their symptoms like an older child can," according to Dr. Marjorie Hogan, director of Pediatric Education at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
For sanitary reasons, the key was to stray from the previous concept of multipurpose digital thermometers that could be inserted in various areas of the body. And a specific design challenge was to eliminate push-button activation standards that unintentionally harmed a baby when parents pushed the button and consequently inserted the thermometer deeper into the infant's rectum.
Smart's designers also resolved to make a device that could be operated with only one hand -- most rectal digital thermometers require two-handed use -- so a parent could hold the baby with the other. The breakthrough concept was to come up with an instinctually squeezable device.
The aesthetics of the rectal thermometer would play an important role as well. The final, ovoid design is slightly indented where the activation button is placed. "We wanted to illustrate that where to squeeze has already been squeezed," says Stowell. "And we had to have the right design language. It looks like a soft cotton ball, and communicates soft friendliness and compassion," he adds.
FUTURISTIC FEEL. The third thermometer in the series, also released last year, has yet to receive any design awards -- perhaps because it resembles other oral, sticklike digital thermometers on the market. The mouth probe curves and is flexible, though, and the bite area features metal protrusions that guide kids away from inserting it too far into their mouths.
Although it's more conventional than the other Life Stages models, its light-blue-and-white color combination keeps the Vicks branding consistent -- as does its sleek, Jetsons-meets-iPod form factor. Yet Stowell is quick to reject any suggestion that the designers strove for an intentionally futuristic or trendy feel. "The sleek designs aren't forced," he says. "The pureness of the purpose and the ease of use were our primary goals. The simple design followed."
Jana is a reporter with BusinessWeek Online in New York
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