Ergonomics in Design: The Quarterly of Human Factors Applications

For decades, the vehicle of choice for idea transfer has been Microsoft’s PowerPoint. PowerPoint gives the orator a plethora of options in the design of a presentation. Choosing configurations for the most effective presentation can prove daunting, and even professional presentations bear witness to the difficulty of choosing wisely. Guidelines based on a collection of basic human factors/ergonomics principles and a few empirical studies are presented for effective PowerPoint presentations.

The technology is available to construct technology-intensive homes that are environmentally friendly and have many functions controlled by networked systems. For the benefits of the technology to be realized, the homes must be designed to support human interactions. The authors review characteristics of smart homes and high-performance buildings with an emphasis on issues concerning human interactions with technologies. Inhabitant-centered design recommendations are described, including incorporating inhabitants’ living behaviors into the design process; providing universal accessibility; linking devices, appliances, and functions with “meaningful” connections; using simple forms of human-technology interaction; and presenting integrated information for multiple environmental variables in addition to information about the individual variables.

The goal of this article is to explore ways to keep elderly individuals independent longer and able to remain in their own homes. Caregivers – whether professionals, family, or friends – are an integral facet in enabling elderly persons to be independent. One of the most challenging aspects of maintaining independence is the complex issue of medication self-management. The main focus of this study considers how the addition of telepresence to a new and as-yet-undeveloped dynamic automated medication-dispensing device could help individuals self-medicate. Through telepresence, patients could easily be connected to a variety of caregivers.

It is proposed that trust is a critical element in the interactive relations between humans and the automated and robotic technology they create. This article presents (a) why trust is an important issue for this type of interaction, (b) a brief history of the development of human-robot trust issues, and (c) guidelines for input by human factors/ergonomics professionals to the design of human-robot systems with emphasis on trust issues. Our work considers trust an ongoing and dynamic dimension as robots evolve from simple tools to active, sentient teammates.

Formula 1 racing is considered the epitome of both motorsport and automotive engineering. Throughout a significant part of its glamorous history, a basic component of the vehicle saw little development: the steering wheel. Since the introduction and proliferation of electronics and control systems, the steering wheel has transformed from an instrument of lateral control to a control panel for various monitoring and controlling parameters that play a decisive role in modern motor racing. In this article, I discuss the main stages in the steering wheel’s evolution and the accompanying ergonomics challenges, from the wide designs in the pre–World War II era of Grand Prix racing to the compact designs in the 1970s, the introduction of paddles and switches in the early 1990s, and, finally, the contemporary compact control panel designs with an estimated cost of $45,000 each.

Kirmani, A. (2011). Mobile Sales Force Automation: Efficiency in Design. Ergonomics in Design, 19(2), 14–18. (Original 10.1177/1064804611408019)