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Allan Faulkner

Staff Industrial Designer, LifeScan Scotland, Inverness

Alan has a BSc in Industrial Design (Technology) and has spent most of his career as an industrial designer.

 
5 things you do regularly in your job
  • Learn about our customer - people with Diabetes plus their doctors / carers etc.
  • “Brainstorm” ideas for products to help our customers.
  • Use a Computer Aided Design package to develop and show “in house” ideas.
  • Talk to external design consultancies and engineers to help guide the design process.
  • Attend market research and talk to our marketing people about the designs.
What made you decide to do this type of job? (teacher/ role model etc) I’ve always enjoyed making things and solving problems and my favorite subjects at school were physics and art. Product designers need to design things that look nice, solve problems for people and are also practical to make; Product Designer or Architect seemed a perfect choice, but I preferred product design as I liked designing things to use in your hands.
How did you get to where you are now? I did a Degree in Industrial Design (Technology) at Napier University and my first job was a designer in a small Design Consultancy working on a wide range of products. I then had jobs designing hospital equipment, plastic consumer products, toys (Action Man), Games (Kerplunk, Mousetrap etc), and now Medical Devices for those with Diabetes at LifeScan.
What motivates you? I still love making things, using CAD and solving problems. It’s great to see people using my products and enjoying them… going into a shop and seeing my designs on the shelves is also great.
Any other info? E.g. activities you have done with schools, what you can offer schools etc. I have helped with a very successful “design a meter” project with local schools where pupils studying product design learn about our market, and engineering, and concept generation tools; design a meter and present their designs; and have these evaluated by a panel of designers and engineers.