Real World Design » Exhibition

Creating a Monster

Fergus Bisset — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:35:42 +0000

It’s been a busy week in the workshops at Brunel University this week, putting together the basic structure of the exhibition stand that we are planning to take to the Cheltenham Science Festival in the first week of June. More details to follow in due course about the content and interactive elements of the stand which will be being manned by volunteers from The Ergonomics Society.

The Stand Ready for Action (photo Fergus Bisset)

We Get The Ergonomics We Promote

Fergus Bisset — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:59:19 +0000

Yet another gem from Seth Godin:

“In a world where consumers have so much power, we now have two responsibilities:

If you don’t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change

If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.”

The same is true in relation to Ergonomics, if we continue to support products and services that do not accomodate our Ergonomic requirements we are effectively announcing that it doesn’t matter to us that using such products is unsafe, inefficient, unpleasant or demoralising.

Through Real World Design we wish to highlight the importance of Ergonomics and also provide you with a platform to highlight products or services that you feel are letting you down in terms of their usability, safety and comfort. Equally, we also wish to promote products and services that you think are making things better.

Use the ‘Comments‘ link or our Facebook Group to speak up!

“So that’s my fault…”

Fergus Bisset — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:22:59 +0000

“Obviously, I’m too fat at 170 lbs., so that’s my fault. Had I been thinner, I’d have been closer to the ladder and thus would have fit through that tiny hole in the cabin where the ladder goes through. Maybe someday they’ll make a boat just for me.”

‘Captain Steve‘ on www.boattest.com (picked up from Ergonomics In The News)

How many times do we catch ourselves saying or thinking “that’s my fault” or “I’m just not very good with…[insert any one of the following]…technology/mobile phones/computers…” or even in this particular case boats!

It is our contention that this user ’self-blame’, is perhaps one of the first indications of a poor consideration of Ergonomics within the design process of the product that elicits it.

Next time you catch yourself thinking such thoughts or even worse writing off even using something on this justification (including perhaps commenting on this blog…?!) ask yourself: “Is it actually my fault? Or is it the designer’s fault for not understanding me and my requirements well enough?”

You’ll hear more from us on this topic over the coming weeks, but in the meantime if there are any products that spring to mind straight away that ellicit these sort of responses in you, let us know, your story could form part of our exhibition and help us in our mission to raise awareness of ergonomics in our daily lives.

“Bad design means that ergonomics and functions were not given high enough priority”

Fergus Bisset — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:11:58 +0000

This statement from Ergonomics In The News quoting German Industrial Designer Peter Knopp understandably attracted our attention, as much for how he represents his view of the relationship between design and ergonomics as for what he actually says about that relationship.

We’d like to share Peter’s sentiment by rephrasing it more positively: “Ergonomics prevents bad design and poor functionality.” Because as we all know, and as the old cliche goes, prevention is better than cure!

Unfortunately, as this article reveals, often Ergonomics is often only integrated into the Design Process as a ‘cure’ for poorly considered human interaction as opposed to acting as the starting point in a genuinely human centred design process.

“Design should make technology understandable and accessible. It should ensure that people can make use of devices.” Gerd E. Wilsdorf, chief designer for Siemens Electronic Devices in Munich.

It is Ergonomics that will enable Design and Designers to do this.

What do you think? What does Ergonomics mean to you? Do you have any examples of products where the designer has not made technology accessible to you? Use the comments link on this post to let us know and we could feature your story in an exhibition at The Design Museum in London in a year’s time.

So What Is Ergonomics?

Fergus Bisset — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:43:52 +0000

Firstly, a very big thank you to all the people who gave up their time to speak to us at The Design Museum on Saturday. It was fantastic speaking to you all and finding out about what Ergonomics means to you. The answers to our questions (for details of which see the previous post) are going to be hugely significant in influencing the content and design of the exhibition. But don’t worry! This is just the first round of engaging with the users of The Design Museum and members of the public, a fundamental part of the human centred design process of designing this exhibition.

Whilst the specific answers are of course confidential, they will inspire a series of posts to this blog over the next few weeks that we hope will begin to demonstrate the impact of Ergonomics on real world design. We hope you will check back again soon as we give you the chance to engage directly with members of the Human Factors and Ergonomics community.

Please also use the blog to ask questions to let us know what you think!

Come And Have A Chat!

Fergus Bisset — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:05:14 +0000

We’re conducting interviews at The Design Museum in London today, so if you’re passing please come and have a chat, tell us what you think of Ergonomics and if there is anything in particular you would like to see or could collaborate with us on as part of the exhibition? We can’t emphasise enough how important this is to us, so even if you can’t come to The Design Museum today please click on the header of this post and leave your thoughts in the comments section:

1. How would you describe Ergonomics? Or in other words what does it mean to you?

2. Can you give an example of good ergonomics?

3. Or bad Ergonomics?

4. In what industries or in the design of what type of products is Ergonomics most important?

There are no right or wrong answers here so please let us know what you think, it’s your first opportunity to be involved in the design of the exhibition, imagine if every designer asked you what you wanted their next product to be like? That would be real world design!