XFT
Neck Massager

Effective skin contact for
neck muscle stimulation

An exploration of beautiful industrial design accompanied with unmatched comfort and ergonomics for XFT’s new EMS (Electro Muscle Stimulation) Neck Massager.

Redefining portable comfort

XFT Medical develop and manufacture home medical & rehabilitation products. They have a long term relationship with IDC and came back to us to work on their latest home medical device, the EMS Neck Massager.

The revitalising neck massager works by sending electrical pulses through the optimised contact pads which have direct contact to the skin on the back of the neck. These pads stimulate the muscles for the massaging effect.

The design process initially started by identifying a brand language for XFT allowing the device to fit into their product range and be easily identified as an XFT Medical product. As a product intended for home use it needs to convey comfort and relaxation which resulted in a softer, rounded form.

One of the key design challenges was the interaction and controls of the device, as the device is used whilst on the users neck, the operator doesn’t have visibility of the buttons. Therefore, the product needs to operated by using touch only. This resulted in the large scalloped area to easily find where the buttons are located. The individual buttons feature concave and convex surfacing to be differentiated by touch.

Extensive exploration and user testing informed the ideal shape for the contact pads to optimise the contact zone for a wide range of users. This resulted in a compound surface shape which follows the curvature of the neck in both directions.

The user testing refined the form to maximise comfort while maintaining a small package which contains the internal electronics efficiently. The CMF has been selected to enhance the comfort by giving a soft feel on the skin as well as being easily cleanable from dirt build up, which is further improved by covering charging ports.