Dexcom's Product Illustration System

Urban Innovation Campus in San Diego, CA on November 9, 2023

In a presentation to medtech industry peers and patient advocates, my colleague Mark Selander (Senior Manager, Industrial Design) and I shared reflections on the evolution of our product illustration system over the last four years. Dexcom's unique visual style plays a key role in forging meaningful connections between our products and their users by engaging them at key moments through the product experiences. Our talk explored the strategy behind the development of comprehensive visual systems, encompassing illustration, animation, and interactive elements, to facilitate in-product guidance, feedback, reinforcement, and brand expression.

In the first part of the presentation, Mark recounted the considerations that went into implementation of a cohesive product illustration system, from securing company-wide buy in for this new direction, to the development of a unique illustration style in collaboration with the renowned agency BUCK in 2020. In the second half, I shared learnings and insights into a few approaches of implementing and evolving our system, such as emotive framing, personification, research-backed concept design, and the importance of listening — strategies that are pivotal in crafting sensitive and globally relevant designs to our users: people living with diabetes.

But the work doesn’t stop here, and we are still listening and learning every day, continuing our commitment to sustaining a culture of excellence and continuously enhancing the user experience.