Interview
ergonomics than its predecessor). In addition, manufacturers of products and machinery are aware that they are operating in an increasingly litigious society, which acts as an incentive to design-out the possibility of human error. Certain industries, such as the railways, also have their own standards to reduce the risks specific to those industries.
bottles. We used rapid prototyping to create 80 different models, which volunteers tested with weighted bottles to help narrow down the choice and progress the project. The final handle is likely to be larger than people are used to seeing, so the industrial designers need to work around this while creating the bottle form and labelling.”
Business benefits
Aside from reacting to the market trends mentioned above, there are several other reasons why designers should take more account of ergonomics - and why they should do so early on and throughout the product development cycle. We have already alluded to the potential for increased sales and the longer-term value added to the brand, but there are other business benefits that are less obvious. Davis cites the main ones as follows: “If you consider ergonomics from the outset, you are less likely to have to make last-minute design changes; in a typical product development programme there is a huge risk of leaving user trials until the pre-production prototype stage, but this risk can be reduced by considering ergonomics earlier. In addition, if products are intuitive and comfortable to use, this reduces the need to provide after-sales support, plus it helps to minimise the number of product returns and warranty claims.” For designers of machinery that will be used in a
production environment, applying ergonomics to operator workstations can improve safety, reduce the opportunities for errors to be made, and raise productivity. Quantifying the benefits of improved ergonomics can
be difficult, but one area where this is done routinely is in website design, particularly for sales-orientated sites. Indeed, a specialist industry has evolved to improve website usability - which can be translated very rapidly into increased sales and, ultimately, profits that far outweigh the costs of the usability consultancy. Elsewhere, of course, investing in ergonomics can reap
rewards in the early stages of a project and at other points too - such as when alternative concepts are being assessed, and when pre-production units are available for user trials. Almost any level of ergonomics input can benefit a design, resulting in improved consumer satisfaction, appeal to a wider range of users, enhanced safety and so on.
Fig. 2. Davis Associates helped to make the Sky+ satellite television receiver and video recorder handset usable for as many people as possible – including blind people.
Davis also highlights another reason why companies have been taking a greater interest in ergonomics in recent years: “Increasingly, as brand values have become highly valued, ergonomics is a good way to protect a brand or strengthen it. If your products gain a reputation for being user-friendly, this can become important in markets where product differentiation is otherwise difficult.” Conversely, the relatively new phenomenon of websites providing consumers with the opportunity to review products can damage brands if products are found to be unsatisfactory. To illustrate the way in which ergonomics can be used
to enhance a brand, Davis outlines a project in which his consultancy is currently involved: “A manufacturer of liquid detergent wants the optimum design of handle for large
8
www.engineerlive.com Techniques and tools
One of the problems with applying ergonomics is that it is a specialist discipline. Large companies are likely to have in-house ergonomists, some design consultancies possess the necessary expertise, industrial designers probably studied ergonomics to some extent during their training, but most companies will need to rely on consultancies. Furthermore, ergonomics is very much a science, rather than an art, as Davis explains: “We have around 300 different tools and methods that we can apply, many of which are text book methods, while others we have developed ourselves. Part of the skill therefore lies in knowing what techniques to use at which points in a project.” Techniques can be categorised according to the phases of
the project: research; interpret; resolve; and test and refine. Some are desk-based, others are computer-based, and the various techniques may or may not require users and/or physical models/products. A number of the techniques are
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68