Designing for Humans

Bryce Rutter on The Soul of Ergonomics

Metaphase's Bryce Rutter, IDSA is prepping to deliver the next session of the Designer Spotlight series. His presentation, titled The Soul of Innovation will reveal how ergonomics can be made sexy. Join us for an online presentation on May 21 at 1 pm EST as he shares case studies and offers how-to tips. To register, call Donna at 703.707.6000 X 100 or visit: https://sslserver.com/idsa.org/absolutefp/designer_spotlight_2008.html

[From IDSA DesignBytes]

Ergonomics, the Elderly and Elevators

A couple of interesting articles related to design and ergonomics in the past week:

-Businessweek had a blurb on Nissan's efforts to design cars for the elderly by wearing a restricting body suit (see image).  Although Bw was not the first one to report on this, and in fact other designers have previously developed similar simulation techniques, I really liked this illustration.  See, "How to Drive Like and Old Guy"  fourth image in slideshow. 

-In an unrelated piece, The New Yorker magazine featured an article "Up and Then Down: The lives of elevators",  While intrinsically interesting to anyone who rides elevators, ergonomists and designers will find the discussion of "proxemics" particularly fascinating from both psychological and anthropometric perspectives:

"Bodies need to fit. Designers of public spaces have devised a maximum average unit size—that is, they’ve figured out how much space a person takes up, and how little of it he or she can abide. The master fitter is John J. Fruin, the author of “Pedestrian Planning and Design,” which was published in 1971 and reprinted, in 1987, by Elevator World, the publisher of the leading industry magazine, Elevator World. (Its January issue came with 3-D glasses, for viewing its best-new-elevator-of-the-year layout, of the Dexia BIL Banking Center, in Luxembourg.) Fruin introduced the concept of the “body ellipse,” a bird’s-eye graphic representation of an individual’s personal space. It’s essentially a shoulder-width oval with a head in the middle. He employed a standard set of near-maximum human dimensions: twenty-four inches wide (at the shoulders) and eighteen inches deep. If you draw a tight oval around this figure, with a little bit of slack to account for body sway, clothing, and squeamishness, you get an area of 2.3 square feet, the body space that was used to determine the capacity of New York City subway cars and U.S. Army vehicles. Fruin defines an area of three square feet or less as the “touch zone”; seven square feet as the “no-touch zone”; and ten square feet as the “personal-comfort zone.” Edward Hall, who pioneered the study of proxemics, called the smallest range—less than eighteen inches between people—“intimate distance,” the point at which you can sense another person’s odor and temperature. As Fruin wrote, “Involuntary confrontation and contact at this distance is psychologically disturbing for many persons.”

Sizing China

Following up from my posting on the Size China presentation at last year's Connecting '07 IDSA national conference, Metropolis magazine has a feature article on Roger Ball's research effort to create a digital database of head anthropometrics for the Asian market. Sizing China

 discusses the inspiration and rationale of the project, its technical challenges ("Aside from chasing chickens out of the scanning room, the Size China team had to battle with time"), and the surprising findiings:

Ball had initially assumed there would be a correlation between head sizes and eye, nose, mouth, and ear sizes, which would allow him to create a series of facially featured average Chinese heads. After scanning several thousand subjects he discovered that there is no correlation between the zones of the face at all: “You could have a very large head, very tiny eyes, and a medium mouth, or a tiny head, very big eyes, and an average mouth,” he says.

With great photos, anecdotes, and a clear articulation of the benefits of this project, Metropolis achieved the near-impossible - making an anthropometric study an interesting subject.

[Note - I am beta testing some new formatting options on TypePad, so things may be a little quirky, over the next few posts]

High-Speed Photography and Video for Ergonomics

High-speed video and photography is getting a lot of attention these days.  This month's Wired Magazine  summarized the history of high-speed photography, from the work of Harold Edgerton to the recent use of lasers to capture images with shutter speeds of 300 x 10^-15 seconds!
(also see last year's article on The Ultimate High-Speed Photography Kit).

And just last week, Vision Research, makers of commercial-grade high-speed cameras, announced the Phantom V12 (inset photo), capable of recording one million pictures per second.

But from a practical point of view, the most intriguing news is the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1. Due in March for an estimated $1000, this camera brings high-speed photography and video to the digital prosumer market.  Several unique features include:

• Ultra High Speed Burst Mode: Up to 60 shots at can be taken at once, so 60 shots per second for one second, or 5 shots per second for 12 seconds, are possible.
• High Speed digital movie recording of up to 1200 frames per second (fps)
• Full High Definition recording at standard speed

In addition to these impressive capabilities, the camera offers some novel user interaction feature such as a buffer to pre-record images prior to the shutter depression, allowing room for error when trying to capture a quick event; and Slow Motion View to review real-time events in slow-motion on the cameras LCD via a buffer.  And of course...stereo recording : )  All of these features are exciting from a gizmo geek's perspective - and there are plenty of reviews and videos from CES. 

But there's a tremendous opportunity to apply this technology to product design.  Specifically, I will be using the high speed burst mode and high speed digital movies to capture motion during rapid manual tasks  - such as the use of a construction tool, surgical instrument or mobile device keypad.  Extending visual perception to micro-seconds is likely to reveal interesting sub-patterns of movement and orientation that are overlooked or invisible at a standard time-scale.  Moreover, it introduces a new perspective on observing physical behavior that expands user research capabilities - at least as far as the presumably massive file storage and power needs of this unique camera will take you.

Download the Human Factors Design Standard

Even if you don't design aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration's Human Factors Design Standard, is an invaluable (and free) reference for design practitioners. 

The complete design standard is large (10MB) and comprehensive - "an exhaustive compilation of human factors practices and principles" - but it provides succinct and tactical, evidence-based information.  For example, concerning touchscreens, fourteen specific guidelines are given for button size, labeling, position, dead space, etc, but the need to test with representative users is also recommended to keep these rules grounded in reality.

In 2007 the FAA added draft updates related to interface design, including displays and non-keyboard input devices (e.g. mouse, joystick, touchscreen). 

A brief, anonymous survey form is required to download the Human Factors Design Standard (HFDS).  Once past that, you may download the entire document or any of the 15 individual chapters or drafts, ranging from Alarms, Audio and Voice to Anthropometry and Biomechanics (a particularly strong section of the document).

Sparsely, but appropriately illustrated, the HFDS gives the actionable guidelines that so many product designers and students are desparate to find in a single location.

PS - Experimenting with larger font size for better readability on recent posts.

Ergonomics of Wheelchairs

...an interesting thread from Google Answers on design anthropometrics to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

Ergonomic Resources from/for Furniture Designers

Several office and furniture design companies provide free, valuable resources on ergonomics for design.  I've highlighted two particular examples:

• The ergonomics section of the Allsteel web site includes a downloadable reference guide: Ergonomics and Design (PDF).  This is one of the best introductory ergonomic guides that I've seen, with a clear explanation of basic anthropometrics and references for further information.  The guide effectively provides illustrations, a glossary and representative data tables to inform readers about designing for offices - including universal design.
• Steelcase's ergonomic section covers many of the same fundamentals, but give's broader consideration to other areas of ergonomics such as cognitive and acoustic concerns in office design.  The site also has a dedicated research article section, which covers both strategic (e.g. "A Macro-ergonomic Approach) and tactical (e.g. "Choosing a Chair") topics.

HF Highlights from Connecting '07 - Size China

Given the 140(!) sessions that took place at the 2007 IDSA national conference this year in San Francisco, there's no shame in missing a few sessions.  Of course the topics that you really want to see all occur simultaneously, leaving one with a "paradox of choices".   

I was most impressed by Roger Ball's Size China:  A New World of Ergonomics.  Roger is a designer by training and professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic.  For the last 18 months, he has been building a database of anthropometric data by digitally scanning over 2,000 Chinese citizens.  The project was inspired by the lack of a comprehensive anthropometric database of Asian head and facial features, comparable to what is available for Caucasian populations.  For example, most helmets used in China were designed against Caucasian measurements and are ill-fitting due to significant differences in head shape between Asians and Caucasians(see image).

Roger said that his data will be made available for free to academic endeavors by contacting him directly.

Learn more about the project at: http://www.sizechina.com/html/index.html

I was intrigued by this project and interested in potential differences in perceived and reported fit among populations, not due to head size, but due to potential cultural and linguistic variances in what is considered comfortable and fitting. Perhaps some of the presenations on measuring emotion would have helped me address those issues, but like I said, I couldn't make all of the presentations.

Updated Hand Anthropometric and Strength Data

These are updated links, rather than updated data per se:

Research conducted for by the British government's Department of Trade and Industry on strength factors across ages and nationalities.  Primarily focused on hand-related characteristics (e.g. grip, push-pull strength):

• Strength Data for Design Safety - Part 1
• Strength Data for Design Safety - Part 2
• Anthropometric and strength data for disabled

Extensive hand anthropometry data from U.S. Army study:

• http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA244533&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Design for the Hand - Event

On Saturday May 13th the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware (about 30 minutes from Philadelphia) will host "Design for the Hand", a seminar on ergonomics and design for the hand.

According to the IDSA Philly site:

"This event features presentations by Rachel Delphia of Carnegie Mellon and Carnegie Museum; Bryce Rutter, Ph.d. of Metaphase Design; and a design charette for attendees."

The event is scheduled from 11AM-3PM and  pre-registration for IDSA members can be done through  this form.

Body Dimensions of the Belgian Population

Very extensive, filterable data from research done in Belgium, includes detailed measurement data for multiple age groups and even wheelchair dimensions and guidelines.  This may be the most complete and up-to-date anthropometric data sets I've seen.

http://www.khlim.be/~rmotmans/Introduction.htm

Ergonomics Course Modules

The United States Air Force has a set of online course on ergonomics, including courses in:

• Tool Design
• Workstation Design
• Basic Biomechanics

This is quite useful information, and is not focused on military applications specifically.  For example, the section on Tool Design demonstrates different types of hand-grips with an ice-cream scooper.

"Extra-Ordinary" Ergonomics: How to Accommodate Small and Big Persons, The Disabled and Elderly, Expectant Mothers, and Children

A new reference book has been published, focused assessment and design of the Ergonomics of special populations.

From the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society description:

"Underscoring the need for extraordinary ergonomics, the book illustrates various approaches to measuring the characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of those who differ from the norm. Kroemer explains how to assess and determine abilities and needs and demonstrates how to design tools, homes, and environments to make working space safe and living space easy.

Researchers and students will find helpful information about measuring people's sizes, strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities, and from this information determine the needs for specific ergonomic accommodations. The book enables human factors professionals, architects, and designers to devise work tasks, devices, tools, and environments for special populations – particularly for children. Health care professionals and employers will discover ways to help people who suffer from temporary or permanent disabilities so they can cope with the demands at work, at home, or in a care facility."

Anthropometric Reference Data, United States, 1988-1994

I've located some more recent data sets for the U.S. population from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the Center for Disease Control (CDC).  This is an extensive data set, focusing on a range of characteristics, primarily around health/nutrition attributes, but certainly applicable to many ergonomic design characteristics.  Includes 64 tables covering everything from weight, height to wrist and buttock circumference:

Anthropometric Data Sets

Anthropometrics for Furniture Designers

The site "Value-Created Review" (Candian ejournal for contemporary furniture design) has a page dedicated to ergonomic information and resources.  It includes basic information and diagrams (pictured), links to other online resources and ergonomcs books.

Strength Data

Research conducted for by the British government's Department of Trade and Industry on strength factors across ages and nationalities.  Primarily focused on hand-related characteristics (e.g. grip, push-pull strength).

Strength Data for Design Safety - Phase 1

Strength Data for Design Safety - Phase 2

Anthropometric Data Sources

One of the most common requests from the recent survey was for anthropometric data sources.  Unfortunately, most data sources are proprietary and/or costly. 

Here are some of the leading data and measurement providers:

Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource Project—CAESAR

PeopleSize

AnthroTech

Here are links to a few publicly available sources, but please comment if you know of more modern and diverse data sets that are available:

U.S. Military Anthropometric Data Sets

NASA Anthropometric Guidelines (based on American males and Japanese females, 2000)

Anthropometric Data of Children

UPDATE: The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has recently published Guidelines for Using Anthropometric Data in Product Design that discusses methods, resources and practices for designing for the human body.