Ergonomics Software - The Use Of Ergonomics Software In Industrial Design Education

Products are made to be used and as such are projected to function, to be used and to be safe. It is only feasible for designers to attain this in their designs if they have some understanding of both the physical and the psychological human distinctiveness. The tools and data of ergonomics and their use, with respect to those of anthropometry, are a necessary part of industrial design education. Students need to understand both how to apply the data appropriately and the restrictions of the use of such data.



The anthropometric databases which are used have traditionally been available in tabular, pictorial or diagrammatic form. They are all designed to provide information which allows the designer to base their designs on apparent fact; the size of particular body dimensions of very small & very large females & males.

There are both content and presentation differences in the different forms: the tabular and pictorial forms both provide data which the designer is responsible for selecting appropriately for his requirements; the designer is given the responsibility of ensuring the data chosen is the correct data.

Suggestions appear in a form where those assumptions have already been made on behalf of the designer and as a result must be regarded as more general, or in some cases more specific, strategy from which to specify a design. All provide a useful starting point on which to base the proportions of any design but are limited in their value in that they provide no further in sequence about the way in which any individual may interact with or feel about a product.

These types of information are now available comparatively cheaply in parallel forms as computer databases and also as ergonomics assessment tools which remove the necessity for extensive mock-up stages in the design process and are ideal for exploratory investigations in the early stages of design.

It has, nevertheless, been observed that students are unwilling to use these facilities; in some cases at all and in others in a suitable fashion. Ergo base has tended not to be used, People size as yet remains an unknown quantity and Mannequin is used mainly as a visualisation tool only. The facilities are made known to students in both Ergonomics and Computing modules and they use extensively the traditional forms of data/recommendations. It is thought that there are a number of reasons for this:-

The forms in which the data are presented. It has been noted, by academic and library staff alike, that design students prefers to use the more visual forms of either traditional anthropometric data or recommendations e.g. Human Scale which is chiefly popular because it provides visual suggestion. Designers are also visual communicators who find the terminology of anthropometry obscure; not all the packages clearly or simply address this issue.

The students have not up to this point, had enough ergonomics practice, or do not consider ergonomics to be their responsibility, particularly given the short timescale of many of their design projects to be motivated to use the evaluation tools. This educational issue is being addressed and therefore may change in the future.

• Felicia Byrnes
• 06/05/2009, 10:59 AM
• 0 Comments