9,438 research outputs found
Evaluating a user interface with ergonomic criteria
Projet PSYCHO ERGOThe usefulness of a set of ergonomic criteria for the evaluation of user interfaces was assessed using a mixed two-factors experimental design. Two groups of usability specialists (Control, Criteria) were asked to evaluate the interface of a musical database management system in two phases. In the first phase of the experiment, all the participants relied solely on their expertise; in the second phase they were instructed to evaluate the management system again but this time through the replay of their previous interactions: participants in the Criteria group used a set of ergonomic criteria while the participants in the Control group did not. In the first phase, the two groups did not differ in terms of: (1) the number of usability problems detected, and (2) the proportions of usability problems uncovered as well as the proportion of usability problems found in common, with respect to the size of the aggregates. In the second phase however, the participants in the Criteria group had better performances than those in the Control group: they uncovered more new problems, and the proportion of problems uncovered as well as the proportion of problems found in common was greater as a function of the number of evaluators in the aggregates. To sum up, the criteria increased the evaluation performance of the experts
What price ergonomics?
Ergonomists have a say in the design of almost everything in the modern world, but there is little evidence that their methods actually work. Here is an evaluation of those methods and of the worth of ergonomics in design
Framework for Dynamic Evaluation of Muscle Fatigue in Manual Handling Work
Muscle fatigue is defined as the point at which the muscle is no longer able
to sustain the required force or work output level. The overexertion of muscle
force and muscle fatigue can induce acute pain and chronic pain in human body.
When muscle fatigue is accumulated, the functional disability can be resulted
as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). There are several posture exposure analysis
methods useful for rating the MSD risks, but they are mainly based on static
postures. Even in some fatigue evaluation methods, muscle fatigue evaluation is
only available for static postures, but not suitable for dynamic working
process. Meanwhile, some existing muscle fatigue models based on physiological
models cannot be easily used in industrial ergonomic evaluations. The external
dynamic load is definitely the most important factor resulting muscle fatigue,
thus we propose a new fatigue model under a framework for evaluating fatigue in
dynamic working processes. Under this framework, virtual reality system is
taken to generate virtual working environment, which can be interacted with the
work with haptic interfaces and optical motion capture system. The motion
information and load information are collected and further processed to
evaluate the overall work load of the worker based on dynamic muscle fatigue
models and other work evaluation criterions and to give new information to
characterize the penibility of the task in design process.Comment: International Conference On Industrial Technology, Chengdu : Chine
(2008
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An evaluation methodology for ergonomic design of electronic consumer products based on fuzzy axiomatic design
This article is posted with permission of OCP Science imprint. Copyright @ 2008 Old City Publishing Group.The development life cycle of software and electronic products has been shortened by the growth of rapid prototyping techniques. The evaluation of electronic consumer products should consider hardware and software as well as the ergonomic usability, emotional appeal and aesthetic integrity of the design. This research follows a systematic approach to develop an evaluation methodology for electronic mobile products on ergonomic design. The proposed methodology is based on fuzzy multi attribute decision making and fuzzy axiomatic design realized in three steps; determination of ergonomic attributes for electronic consumer products, determination of a representative set of alternatives, and selection of the best alternative in terms of ergonomic design by utilizing fuzzy axiomatic design. A case study is also provided to support the proposed methodology
Exploring the Usability of Municipal Web Sites: A Comparison Based on Expert Evaluation Results from Four Case Studies
The usability of public administration web sites is a key quality attribute for the successful implementation of the Information Society. Formative usability evaluation aims at finding and reporting usability problems as early as possible in the development process. The objective of this paper is to present and comparatively analyze the results of an expert usability evaluation of 4 municipality web sites. In order to document usability problems an extended set of heuristics was used that is based on two sources: usability heuristics and ergonomic criteria. The explanatory power of heuristics was supplemented with a set of usability guidelines. The evaluation results revealed that a set of specific tasks with clearly defined goals helps to identify many severe usability problems that occur frequently in the municipality web sites. A typical issue for this category of web sites is the lack of information support for the user.Formative Usability Evaluation, User Testing, Expert Evaluation, Heuristic Evaluation, Ergonomic Criteria, Usability Problem, Municipal Web Sites
Ergonomic Chair Design by Fusing Qualitative and Quantitative Criteria using Interactive Genetic Algorithms
This paper emphasizes the necessity of formally bringing qualitative and
quantitative criteria of ergonomic design together, and provides a novel
complementary design framework with this aim. Within this framework, different
design criteria are viewed as optimization objectives; and design solutions are
iteratively improved through the cooperative efforts of computer and user. The
framework is rooted in multi-objective optimization, genetic algorithms and
interactive user evaluation. Three different algorithms based on the framework
are developed, and tested with an ergonomic chair design problem. The parallel
and multi-objective approaches show promising results in fitness convergence,
design diversity and user satisfaction metrics
A Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Data from a Formative Usability Evaluation of an Augmented Reality Learning Scenario
The proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies creates opportunities for the devel-opment of new learning scenarios. More recently, the advances in the design and implementation of desktop AR systems make it possible the deployment of such scenarios in primary and secondary schools. Usability evaluation is a precondition for the pedagogical effectiveness of these new technologies and requires a systematic approach for finding and fixing usability problems. In this paper we present an approach to a formative usability evaluation based on heuristic evaluation and user testing. The basic idea is to compare and integrate quantitative and qualitative measures in order to increase confidence in results and enhance the descriptive power of the usability evaluation report.augmented reality, multimodal interaction, e-learning, formative usability evaluation, user testing, heuristic evaluation
Power-Assist Wheelchair Attachment
This senior design project sought to combine the best characteristics of manual and power wheelchairs by creating a battery-powered attachment to propel a manual wheelchair. The primary customer needs were determined to be affordability, portability, and travel on uneven surfaces. After the initial prototype, using a hub motor proved unsuccessful, so a second design was developed that consisted of a gear reduction motor and drive wheel connected to the back of the wheelchair by a trailing arm that could be easily attached/detached from the frame. The prototype of the second design succeeded in meeting most of the project goals related to cost, off-road capability, inclines, and range. Improvements can be made by reducing the attachment weight and improving user control of the device
Human Arm simulation for interactive constrained environment design
During the conceptual and prototype design stage of an industrial product, it
is crucial to take assembly/disassembly and maintenance operations in advance.
A well-designed system should enable relatively easy access of operating
manipulators in the constrained environment and reduce musculoskeletal disorder
risks for those manual handling operations. Trajectory planning comes up as an
important issue for those assembly and maintenance operations under a
constrained environment, since it determines the accessibility and the other
ergonomics issues, such as muscle effort and its related fatigue. In this
paper, a customer-oriented interactive approach is proposed to partially solve
ergonomic related issues encountered during the design stage under a
constrained system for the operator's convenience. Based on a single objective
optimization method, trajectory planning for different operators could be
generated automatically. Meanwhile, a motion capture based method assists the
operator to guide the trajectory planning interactively when either a local
minimum is encountered within the single objective optimization or the operator
prefers guiding the virtual human manually. Besides that, a physical engine is
integrated into this approach to provide physically realistic simulation in
real time manner, so that collision free path and related dynamic information
could be computed to determine further muscle fatigue and accessibility of a
product designComment: International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing
(IJIDeM) (2012) 1-12. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with
arXiv:1012.432
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