Intro & Consumer Product

My name is Hillary. I’m a neuroscience major and a studio art minor. I’m taking this class because the subject matter really interests me. I’ve always liked making and designing things and I didn’t want to let me college experience end without having done a little of that. I love plants and I have a big potted lavender bush in my dorm.

A simple consumer product that I own is my EpiPen. It administers epinephrine, a drug that opens airways and tightens blood vessels to counter-act allergic reactions. Mine has a safety holder with a yellow cap that is see-through and roughly the same size as the product inside. It has a bright orange end to show the side that administers the drug. There are large instructions in English along with a simple illustration. There is also a blue safety cap that has to be removed in order for the injection to work. I chose this product because it is something that I always have with me and know a lot about, but don’t really think about at all. I think it is interesting that this product is designed for a person with life-threatening allergies but understood to probably be administered by a different person. How does that influence design? Newer EpiPens have spoken instructions that begin when the safety pin is removed, but mine does not, which I think makes it less expensive. Even so, it is both not sustainable and also very expensive. It is mostly plastic with an internal sterile needle likely made of steel or some other metal and .03 mg epinephrine. It probably costs something like $12 to make, but between the drug inside and the EpiPen itself, it could be more. They sell for $700. I think this one was maybe $350 with insurance. There are about five parts in the EpiPen and two in the holder.