Human factors: Case history: Building a medical monitor

In the fall of 1965, a group of industrial designers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers at Tektronix were called upon to form a team with the express purpose of building a medical instrument. Since it was to be Tektronix' first attempt to enter this market, not much was known about the problems of medical instrumentation and its related technology. This proved to have one advantage, however, since the absence of established rules and protocol governing the new project allowed its members to start completely from scratch. The result: a synergistic approach to the project task (see Box, this page) that led to an instrument superior to any that could have been obtained through disjointed efforts.