The Mirion Technologies Design Language System is a documented design language that translates the Mirion brand's intangibles into digital and physical manifestations through a common shared vocabulary. Mirion Technologies (a manufacturer of radiological instruments) had experienced significant growth over the past decade through a series of mergers and acquisitions, resulting in a disparate portfolio of 550 products, 155 applications, and eight brands with no common interactions and behaviors or look and feel. The system provides the tools and creative guidance to systematically express the brand's purpose and promise in two- and three-dimensions – establishing a consistent identity for all touchpoints and experiences while allowing for guided flexibility for discrete solutions. The comprehensive design language spans and integrates brand strategy, visual and industrial design, user interaction, and experience design to scale design, reduce de­ign debt, and build brand equity through consistent interactions.

DESIGN INNOVATION

Mirion Technologies had experienced significant growth through mergers and acquisitions, resulting in a disparate portfolio of 550 products, 155 applications, and eight brands with no standard look and feel. We were challenged to help Mirion scale design, reduce de­sign debt, build brand equity through consistent interactions, and harmonize the product experience.

In response, we developed a Design Language System (DLS) to tell the Mirion brand's story. A systematic translation, expression, and communica­tion of Mirion's purpose and promise, bringing to life how the brand should look, feel, sound, and behave in two- and three-dimensions. Rigorous analysis of Mirion's portfolio revealed that despite its size and perceived complexity, all of Mirion's products and applications were based on three (3) specific use cases:

ALERT | SEARCH | ANALYZE

The application of these two use cases, coupled with systems thinking, simplified the com­plexity inherent in Mirion's portfolio. The result. We developed two frameworks to communicate the Design Language System's scope (DLS), its components, and application.

The DLS Platform organizes the brands' touchpoints into "Experience Platforms." Each platform is built on Mirion's brand DNA and Design Principles, a foundation that spans across all platforms: IFU's, Websites, Collateral, Applications, Products, and Packaging.The DLS Architecture provides design teams with a tangible reference point for developing new products and understanding the physical and interactive dimen­sions of the brand. It transforms the purpose and prom­ise of the Mirion brand into a unique, repeatable, and scalable language through the use of three sixteen Design Principles and Signature Elements.

BENEFIT TO END USER

The key benefits of Mirion's Design Language System for its customers, marketers, designers, and engineers is that it:

REDUCES DESIGN DEBT

The DLS accelerates the design process by providing development teams with a clear vision in precise and inspiring terms for how Mirion's future products should look, feel, sound, and behave – physically and digitally – in two- and three-dimensions.

REDUCES ORGANIZATION FRICTION

Having a clear vision of the future state helps product development teams avoid spending hours reinventing and debating design directions based on personal opinion. Instead, efforts are focused on communicating a shared and understood brand personality, so teams can collaborate quickly to produce the Mirion's customers want.

GUIDES THINKING AND ACTION

Having a reliable structure and framework for product developers in the organization to internally validate their thinking and actions against means they can focus more on moving the brand forward rather than worrying about justifying the soundness of what they are doing.

SCALES DESIGN

The DLS scales design by applying systems thinking to provide clear guidelines for each experience platform, enabling teams to build better products faster — making design repeatable and scalable within the organization.

IMPROVES BRAND EQUITY

Aligning the visual appearance and digital behaviors of Mirion's products with the Brand DNA creates consistency, differentiation, and relevance. It delivers a singular, powerful expression of who Mirion is and what it stands for. Ultimately, increasing the worth of the company by building brand equity.

BENEFIT TO CLIENT

The Design Language System (DLS) contributes to Mirion's success in the Radiation Measurement & Detection category by reducing time to market, decreasing development costs, and build­ing visual and interactive brand equity. The DLS has launched internationally across the organization providing teams with a shared understanding of the brand and how it should be manifested in all-new Mirion products. The DLS helped Mirion scale design by applying systems thinking, providing clear guidelines for each product platform, and enabling teams to build better products faster — making design repeatable and easy to scale. Traditionally, independent product teams started from scratch with every new project, a practice that was costly, wasteful, and inefficient. Now with a single source of truth, efforts are focused on communicating a common brand personality within an agreed-on language.

Radiation detection products are traditionally technology-led and challenging to use. We put end-users at the heart of the language by developing a set of design principles: Clear Mission, Scientific Precision, Human Touch that met their physical and functional needs to create products that are intuitive, effortless, safe, and ergonomic. We supported the consistent application of the brand through the creation of an overarching architecture consisting of the Brands DNA, Visual Tone, and a set of Design Principles and Signature Elements directly informed by the brand's values making its intangible elements actionable for product development.

DESIGN AESTHETICS

Radiation professionals don't want products with flashy, non-functional ornamentation. They care about intelligibility, how easy it is to understand the data, and how easy it is to use the product. Precision is a vitally important attribute in scientific instruments, so we developed a form language that used a purposeful composition of simple, recognizable, stable forms to anchor the language. Hexagons and trapezoids were used extensively as dynamic but stable shapes that have scientific overtones and conveys a high degree of precision and professionalism, as well as soft rectangles used to bring a human element and frame critical interfaces. The products were designed to be "Field Tough" so they could take a beating with an impact-resistant TPE over-molded body made of LEXAN polycarbonate and CYCOLOY capable of withstanding frequent drops and meet the IP67 standard for resistance to dust, sand, and moisture.

To ensure best-in-class usability we established the mental model "Interaction Layers," consisting of color zoning and material finishes to create physical layers that reinforce the desired hierarchies of visual and tactile information to help users understand how they should interact with a product. Dished surfaces with a matte soft-touch material consistently frame touchscreens and other areas of critical input--for example. A flat hierarchy was adopted across all the digital UI to make selection options explicit and clear, enhancing legibility and readability to improve the usability and visual harmony of Mirion's user interfaces.