Mobility Innovation | Nottingham Spirk Design Collaborative

Mobility innovation for home healthcare

CHALLENGE: Identify a new product category and concept for development.

SERVICES: NS PathFinder™ Innovation Identification Process, Insights, Design, Engineering, Prototyping, Sourcing, Manufacturing

AWARDS / PRESS: Today's Caregiver Friendly Award

SUCCESS: Functional and versatile overbed table for home use.

Above: The atHand Overbed Table System is a consumer home healthcare product that resulted from an NS PathFinder™ white space analysis program.

The atHand Overbed Table System is the only adjustable bedside table with built-in lights, power, USB and storage. It keeps everything conveniently in reach, bringing independence, safety and comfort to an elderly patient aging in place, or anyone experiencing temporary or long-term limited mobility.

We worked on this project with client-partner Integrant, a manufacturer of high-end injection-molded plastics, through our PathFinder Innovation Identification process. PathFinder is a three-month program designed to analyze white space areas that leverage a company’s core competencies while identifying gaps for full market potential. In the case of Integrant, we knew our starting point was a material, plastic, and scored and ranked an initial 30 potential market options to eight, then two.

From there, NS’s vertically integrated team — market researchers, designers and engineers — identified promising sub-categories within the chosen fields; evaluated existing products within them; and found the pain points that those products don’t address.

Five Scenarios Suggesting You Need a Category Strategy

Client-partner Integrant leveraged Nottingham Spirk's white space analysis program to uncover markets that drew on their existing expertise. The program resulted in the atHand Overbed Table, a medical product that diversified their portfolio of products. The NS PathFinder program helps companies identify markets and launch new businesses – and it isn't just for those struggling.

Ideation Sessions Result in Home Healthcare Product

NS used these inputs to drive ideation sessions that generated dozens of potential product concepts, and Integrant chose what would ultimately become the atHand Table as the winning concept. The bedside table market had changed little in many years; few offered anything more than a flat surface, despite market trends that included home healthcare and aging in place.

Once the winning concept was identified, Integrant worked closely with Nottingham Spirk on a Vertical Innovation™ program to further design, develop and validate the home medical device concept with end-users, and then manufacture the final product.

On Amazon, the atHand table has earned almost all 4- and 5-star reviews. As we had learned in consumer testing, people whose conditions require them to spend a lot of time sitting or lying in bed welcome any chance to regain some independence, as this Amazon shopper comment illustrates: “Looked for a side cabinet with tray table for my elderly father for a long time. He likes to keep his favorite things stashed nearby and this table has been perfect. He likes to do things for himself, and this table system supports those efforts.”