The MyForm Pen Development Story

Why innovate a writing device?

In my own experience, whenever I would pick up a pen or pencil I could never find a comfortable position to hold it. Most likely because it did not conform to my hand and if I wrote for any length of time, my hand would cramp up.

Enter MyForm pen design. It solved both problems. It conforms to the human hand comfortably and it resolves cramp causing pressure points because of the large sweeping and soft conforming surfaces.

The genesis of the MyForm pen…

It all started, in 2003, with thought of making the frequently used computer mouse into a writing instrument. This unique instrument has evolved through years of development.

Then from nearly 20 concepts, three crude prototypes were made out of clay. The common design feature was large hand support areas in order to minimize pin point stress created in traditional cylindrical pens.

Three Field Studies

The Focus Group Study
Then 7 more refined prototypes were made from foam and tested in a focus group of pen users. Some with hand limitations due to age or other causes. The unanimous consensus was the #7 pen (on the right) was the favorite!

UW-Milwaukee Ergonomics Dept Class Project

The UWM Ergonomics department, through an informal class exercise, determined that the AWP (#7) pen offered a faster learned, and more effective writing tool for users with a need to write with their non-dominate or preferred writing hand.

Then the final pen and innovative base design….Creating a desktop base to support the pen in a “ready” position accomplished three things.

  1. It made finding the pen effortless as it was clearly positioned on the desk top ready to go.
  2. It made starting the writing process faster as it was positioned in the writing stance and with the pen point out and ready to go.
  3. The base is designed with an innovative “pen point freshness guard” to assure the pen will start writing almost immediately, eliminating the annoying ink skip found in most other pens.

In 2021, this final design was the subject of a robust field study orchestrated by the ergonomics department of a well-known medical university. The study compared a traditional ball point pen to the AWP ergonomic pen and was studied for writing performance and hand comfort.

An excerpt from the field study initial conclusions …

“…A large majority of subjects (i.e., about 75-90%) reported a perception of less finger pressure, less writing pressure, and less cramping of the hand when using the AWP pen.
In healthy subjects, the AWP pen has comparable performance to a standard pen under most circumstances and is perceived to require less finger and writing pressure by most users. It also results in less perceived cramping of the hand for most users. For some users, the AWP pen appears to reduce the rate of pain and fatigue increase during writing tasks… “

Advanced Writing Products