Advancing The Human Experience

Positively impacting human experience is what gets us out of bed in the morning.

Recognition our work has won for our clients

About us

Human-centred design manifests itself in every element of what we do. As an award-winning ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016 design firm established in 1999, Cortex develops products that advance the human experience.

Our clients engage us when they need a flexible, responsive team to augment their internal resources and launch exceptional medical or consumer products.

Manifesto

Everyone at Cortex is a Designer

Great design starts with the ambition to envision a better world. We lead with empathy and are curious, keen observers of those we design for. We judge ourselves by the impact our work has on others.

We work hard to safeguard the physical and emotional health, safety, and comfort of those whose lives we touch. Human-centred design cannot be done behind closed doors, sitting at a computer or with a conversation around a boardroom table. Our partners understand that to create resonant products we need to take the time to understand and engage with those who use our solutions by placing them at the centre of our design process.

Where gaps in care and the market exist, we use our experience and skills to develop novel solutions that are cost effective and achievable, and to push our partners to their next milestone. We are focused on the development of consumer MedTech, particularly new and novel devices targeted for patient-centered use.

Get to know them

Work with empathy for the user.

Product design is first and foremost about people. It’s just as important to understand the people who will use your product as it is to understand the technology and the packaging behind it. We champion the user in every aspect of our work, from initial research to final engineering.

Work with curiosity.

Steer with questions, not assumptions. Curiosity offers new ways of looking at problems. It leads to solutions that go beyond surface symptoms to solve root issues.

Work through failure.

Great ideas don’t always work the first time you try them. If it was that easy, it would have been done before. We build, we test, we evaluate and then we iterate. Repeat until optimized.

Work with an open mind.

We set out with good intentions, are not discouraged by the barriers we may face, and foster a sense of play in everything we do.

Work to add value.

Good design is good business. We steer the creative process, minimize design and manufacturing costs, and maximize the impact of the product.

Work with an eraser.

~~We distill the products we design to their most essential form and most intuitive and/or delightful interaction~~. Improvement craves subtraction.

Careers

Join us!

We founded Cortex Design with a simple motto: People Deserve Better Experiences. This ethos manifests in the work we do for our clients and their users. It also guides our approach to creating a working culture.

Creative collaboration shouldn’t be governed by ego, or whoever has the loudest voice in the room. We believe curiosity, empathy, discovery, and a sense of play are the way to solve real problems and build things worth building.

At Cortex, we work with global clients to create medical and consumer products that simplify and enrich people’s lives. These projects are complex. They haven’t been done before. The team is growing as we advance in our mission.

Our work requires high performers who can deliver exceptional creative and technical work in collaboration with others. More than that, it requires people who come from a wide variety of lived experiences. People who are deeply invested in building things, and building relationships. People who believe in the value of all cultures, who have a keen passion for solving problems, and are comfortable making mistakes.

If you’re one of those people, reach out to us.

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