Human factors and ergonomics design principles and guidelines : helping designers to be more creative

This is a pre-copyedited version of a contribution published in: Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 824, edited by Bagnara S., Tartaglia R., Albolino S., Alexander T., Fujita Y., published by Springer, Cham. The definitive authenticated version is available online via https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_17.The knowledge and application of Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) principles and guidelines can help designers to develop better products and services. However, they may also include design constraints that may affect designers’ creativity. Although both HFE principles and guidelines and creativity are considered essential in the design of products and services, the link between them is little researched. In this article a discussion is presented on the influence that HFE principles and guidelines can exert on the creativity of designers. It also presents case studies of HFE principles and guidelines and discusses how they can influence designers’ creativity. In addition, a set of recommendations is suggested to help designers apply ergonomic design principles and guidelines to stimulate creativity. It is concluded that HFE principles and guidelines can assist designers in creating safer and more efficient products and services and can also broaden their creative process and therefore the originality and appropriateness of products and services

Soft problems in Using Consumer Electronic Products

Manufacturers are confronted with complaints from consumers that are not related to technical failure. Failure seems to be related to an unexpected gap between actual product use and intended use by the manufacturer, as products are becoming more complex and miniaturized. This new class of consumer complaints in the consumer electronic industry is defined as ???soft problems???. In this paper, we empirically analyze what soft problems consumers have experienced using consumer electronic products, and if culture leads to differences in soft problems between Korea and the Netherlands. From collected complaints, we first created categories of soft problems, analyzed the correlation between product categories and soft problems, and then compared the differences between both groups. Most soft proble ms are very closely related to product design factors and they differ between product categories. Differences are also found between the two cultural groups. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed

Evaluating creativity in parametric design processes and products: a pilot study

Parametric design is an emerging research issue in the design domain. However, our current understanding of creativity in relation to either a process or product standpoint is limited. This paper presents a formal approach for the description and identification of creativity from both perspectives. The framework combines: (1) protocol analysis for encoding cognitive design activities, providing a process-based evaluation of creativity, and (2) consensual assessment of parametric products, providing a product-based evaluation of creativity. The coding scheme is based on the creative acts: Representation, Perception, and Searching for a Solution. The consensual assessment technique is based on a series of creativity evaluations undertaken by an expert panel. The effectiveness of this approach was examined in a pilot study. Findings show the capture of cognitive activities and identification of creative patterns, revealing how they correspond to the creativity levels of parametric design products. The results identify conditions that have the potential to enhance creativity in parametric design. This research provides a promising procedure not yet available and contributes to the development and verification of a formal approach for evaluating creativity in parametric design