Trans RINA, Vol 157, Part C1, Intl J Marine Design, Jan - Dec 2015 INVESTIGATE AND STIMULATE FUTURE MARITIME DESIGNERS’ CONTEXT OF


USE KNOWLEDGE: A WORKSHOP APPROACH (DOI No. 103940/rina.ijmd.2015.c1.47)


A Abeysiriwardhane, M Lützhöft, E S Petersen and H Enshaei, Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, Australia SUMMARY


Human Centred Design (HCD) is an approach, which focuses on making systems usable by applying Human Factors (HF), Ergonomics, and usability knowledge and techniques during design. One foundation of this approach is an understanding of the situation in which the product will be used; the context of use (CoU).


A “CoU in Ship Design” workshop was conducted with 50 final year Bachelor of Engineering undergraduate students in the Australian Maritime College to investigate and stimulate their CoU knowledge. Students were asked to build low fidelity prototypes of selected work contexts on ships, and to prepare mobile phone videos of a scenario. A team of six subject matter experts were available as end users, for consultation.


Low fidelity prototype and video analysis, questionnaire findings and workshop observations show that the students’ understanding of situations on ships could be improved. However these finding contain some elements of the context in many cases – more on general layout and crew members present, less on crew roles. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the need to include HF and HCD theoretical underpinnings in undergraduate Maritime Design Engineering syllabi.


NOMENCLATURE CoU


HCD HF


IEA Context of Use


Human Centred Design Human Factors


International Ergonomics Association


ISO International Organisation for Standardization


1. INTRODUCTION


The design of a ship may impact critically on the working lives of seafarers in a variety of ways. Some ship design features affect the mental workload, some affect the crews’ ability to sleep, and others affect the level of physical stress on the crew [1-3]. As an example, accommodation layout design can impact on the quality of rest available to seafarers, the levels of restoration they achieve in non-working hours and the degree of mental wellbeing they experience [4]. Spending up to six months or more aboard ship, occasionally subject to harsh weather, the life of the seafarers is thus heavily dependent on the ship’s design dimensions such as equipment accessibility, habitability, workability, maintainability, operability [5-7], usability, reliability, supportability and acceptability [8]. To ensure a design is appropriate for its intended purpose, and the context in which it will be used, the designers should consider the above aspects ensuring that the users capabilities and limitations are considered during design. Furthermore a good design always has to integrate Human Factors (HF) as an integral part for effectively ensuring the safety and efficiency of the ship, its subsystems, and the health, safety and wellbeing of the crew [9]. In order to achieve


© 2015: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects


this goal, like many other industries, the maritime industry should also be more aware of the value of Human Centred Design (HCD) as a means to design solutions such as equipment and ships that integrate the needs of users. However, there appears to be limited established and


incorporating HCD in design in this industry.


HCD is an approach which focuses on making systems usable by


applying HF, Ergonomics, and usability


knowledge and techniques during design [10]. According to ISO 9241-210 standard this approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency, improves human well- being, user satisfaction, accessibility, and sustainability, and counteracts possible adverse effects of use on human health, safety and performance [7, 10]. This


design


philosophy has been promoted by The International Ergonomics Association [11] as the enabler for the application and integration of HF principles, methods and techniques into design and the standard describes


ISO 9241-210 the requirements and


recommendations for design principles and activities used within this approach [12, 13]. According to ISO 9241-210, there are five essential processes [10] which should be


undertaken to incorporate usability


requirements, as; 


  


 plan the HCD process;


understand and specify the context of use; specify the user requirements; produce


design requirements; evaluate the designs against requirements. solutions to meet user


universally accepted approaches to


C-179


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