Transmitting Insulin: The Design and Look of Insulin Delivery Devices as Technologies of Communication

Abstract

In this article, we examine how insulin pens and pumps – two major devices for delivering insulin, the anabolic hormone used to treat Type 1 diabetes – are designed to conceal and fashion insulin delivery around their appearance as key communication technologies. Insulin pens and insulin pumps transform the aesthetics of insulin delivery away from the medicalized appearance of syringes toward that of beautiful technological artifacts. They both hide and draw attention to their status as technological artifacts and their medical use through a set of desirable, though sometimes incongruous, device aesthetics. Deliberately marketed around their resemblance to pens or pagers, insulin delivery devices are examples of skeuomorphs that “materialize the metaphor” of writing instruments and telecommunication tools into their design. We analyze how diabetes education and marketing materials present insulin delivery devices through skeuomorphic performances of use that uphold norms of concealment in diabetes self-management in conditions of social and medical surveillance. Drawing on patents, educational and marketing materials, and our own experiences with these devices, we argue that the skeuomorphic design of these devices morally regulates the embodied performance of diabetes.