Teamwork Makes the Tailgate Dreams Work

To build innovative products that serve it’s target audience, it takes getting great minds in a room with a human-centered focus.

Ava UV

AvaUV

Research / UX Design / Industrial Design / Branding / Engineering / Production

AvaUV is a Tekna company, born out of the need to address emerging global health and wellness issues. This line of UV products work to provide comfort that the personal and professional tools you rely on are free from potentially harmful pathogens.

With years of infection prevention and disinfection development experience, we are utilizing our experience with UVC as a way to prevent microorganisms from replicating and spreading in any environment. This extra layer of clean can be done quickly and with no training required, making it accessible to anyone.

Originally designed for healthcare, it became clear that the need extends to any industry or environment. To do this, we’ve made it effective, efficient, and convenient to use anytime.

By bringing UV forward in your disinfection efforts and into the hands of everyone, you’re not only supporting a cleaner environment, you’re empowering individuals by providing their own control over their items.

Disinfection for the personal and professional tools you rely on

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Advanced

Industry leading UVC lamps and innovative disinfection chamber provide efficient cycle times.

Versatile

Created for the tools you need and the way you work – ready to use, configurable, and scalable.

Trusted

Built for success. Made in the USA by an ISO13485 Certified manufacturer.

Nara

Nara Bassinet

Research / Human Factors / Industrial Design / Branding / Animation / Engineering / Production

Nara is our baby. It was internally created from the ground up as a new, innovative hospital bassinet. It was designed to bring mothers close to their newborns when it matters most and provide caregivers with a beautifully designed, safe, ergonomic care solution

We recognized that the bassinet market has been relatively ignored for decades. Current bassinets could be described as one of two things: a wood filing cabinet or a metal filing cabinet on wheels. We started to ask the question, why are we pushing newborn babies around on filing cabinets?

We started our research at the source – with NICU and mother/baby nurses. We heard complaints of bulkiness, uncleanliness, and inaccessibility that added up to an experience that was just plain clunky. We studied each person’s interactions and allowed their feedback to evolve our design. Some nurses were stooping and straining too much, others struggled to quietly and efficiently maneuver the bassinet, and mothers had trouble reaching for their babies from bed. It was clear we needed to develop a new solution.

Disclaimer: The following video is not hosted by Tekna. Any claims made in this video are by the video owner, not Tekna.

We implemented our iterative prototyping processes and leveraged sketch exploration, CAD development, in-house 3D printing, and fabrication methods to refine the aesthetic and functionality.

We conducted one-on-one user interviews, focus group discussions, and took full-scale mockups into the field to get feedback from people who would use this product every day.

We conducted comprehensive formative and summative usability testing with Labor/Delivery and NICU nursing staff, hospital environmental services, and new moms. Their overwhelmingly positive responses validated the final design and new features.

As the product evolved, so did the brand, differentiating it in the market as approachable, caring, and inviting. Branding efforts included print material, animation, and video creation. The true value of experience that we were reinventing was taking shape but it needed a name, and ultimately we had to look outside the English language to capture its essence – Nara.

Nara received a Good Design® Award from Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, as well as the Core77 Community Choice Prize, and a 2017 Core77 Notable Award in the Commercial Equipment category.

Altogether, initial user research, opportunity identification, and industrial design grew to mechanical engineering, regulatory support, branding, and manufacturing for a Class II medical device. The exciting value propositions presented by our end product captured the interest of a major medical device manufacturer that led to an OEM opportunity for us. Our team ensured every bit of design intent was captured when we brought the product to life and delivered a solution that’s locally designed and manufactured, leveraging a supply chain based predominantly in Michigan.

Collaborative Design for the Win in Creating Inclusive Products

For 5 years, Tekna has partnered with Michigan Design Council’s Design Prize in collaboration with K-12 students.

The Need for Speed

From a young age, engineer Mike Gruizinga has been fascinated with speed and racing.

Global Innovation Awards

We are excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our very own Eve Berndt at the Global Innovation Awards!

Digimate

Branding

Digimate is a reusable buddy splint product designed to join two fingers together to promote healing. Created by an orthopedic surgeon, it’s designed to put comfort and function first. We developed this brand to be approachable, yet professional – a sure standout amongst the competition.

To kick off the nomenclature portion of the project, we set up a series of working sessions. Through Microsoft Teams meetings, we interviewed our client to understand his field and to discuss the engineering and intent of the product. Throughout that process, we generated a list of themes in which to categorize our bank of words. With guidance from our research, we assembled an array of names that were not only intentional, but also memorable.

To visualize the full picture of the feel that the brand should go, we created four different mood boards with different colors themes, and overall brand representation.

We chose Mollen as the brand’s primary typeface, including some customizations to create the logo itself,

We explored multiple different logo variations before the final decision was made. Once we knew the logo, we did a color study to understand which colors best fit the desired brand experience and tone that we set with the mood board.

“Digi” represents the hand by calling out the fingers, or digits. “Mate” represents the joining of the injured and uninjured finger that creates a pair when the product is in use. Brought together, this name suggests the brand’s friendly and approachable tone. By turning the “D” in Digimate, you get the hand icon (shown here above the logo). This not only shows the product in use, but also represents the state of Michigan where the product was developed.

The tagline, “Comfort & function first” highlights the values and benefits of the product. These were the first two things Dr. Mayor addressed in his design, and are factors that other splints fail to accomplish. The Digimate splint is also the first product that Dr. Mayor has created and is emphasized by the word “first” in the mark’s tagline.

AvaUV

Research / UX Design / Industrial Design / Branding / Engineering / Production

AvaUV is a Tekna company, born out of the need to address emerging global health and wellness issues. This line of UV products work to provide comfort that the personal and professional tools you rely on are free from potentially harmful pathogens.

With years of infection prevention and disinfection development experience, we are utilizing our experience with UVC as a way to prevent microorganisms from replicating and spreading in any environment. This extra layer of clean can be done quickly and with no training required, making it accessible to anyone.

Originally designed for healthcare, it became clear that the need extends to any industry or environment. To do this, we’ve made it effective, efficient, and convenient to use anytime.

By bringing UV forward in your disinfection efforts and into the hands of everyone, you’re not only supporting a cleaner environment, you’re empowering individuals by providing their own control over their items.