Starkey Laboratories Wins Spark Design Award for ZAn

Starkey Laboratories, one of the world's leading hearing technology companies, is the recipient of a Spark Design Award for the design of ZAn, the best-in-class receiver-in-canal (RIC) line of products that was launched this year.

ZAn, one of 360 entries considered by a 14-member jury of global design experts, was in good company with illustrious designs from Kohler, Dyson, Swarovski, Virgin America, BMW and design firms like Fuseproject and Pentagram Design.

Winners will be on exhibit at the Autodesk Design Gallery in San Francisco, Calif., until January 2009.

"We are proud to be recognized for the amazing work our designers and engineers did to create ZAn," said Tim Trine, Chief Technical Officer at Starkey.

"You can't know what people want without asking them, and that's exactly what we did.

We conducted extensive research with hearing care professionals and patients to find out what they wanted in a hearing instrument -- and the result is the award-winning ZAn."

Developed with Starkey's evidence-based design approach, ZAn blends world-class technology with beautiful design, ultimately providing high levels of acceptance and satisfaction for users.

Built out of moisture-resistant material, ZAn was designed to minimize the number of touchpoints on wearers' skin with a curved, elegant shape.