DESIGNING *for humans

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]

The Risks of Design Research Blogging

One of the positive side effects of blogging is that people contact me with various, relevant issues such as career advice, research questions and help with finding references.  I occasionally get very specific human factors questions as well.

But today I go the oddest question.  It was from a car dealer who I do not know.  I have removed the name and contact information for anonymity, but here is the word-for-word email:

im the Business Manager with the Local Ford Dealer.

My questions is...is there away to swap the position of the the brake and
accelator pedals in 2008 Ford Focus, we have a Tech, who's aunt wants a new
Focus and needs the pedals swapped!!

Im hoping you can help or point me in the right direction.

I responded that I did not think it was a good idea, and probably not legal to do so.  Anyone know otherwise?

From Here to There: Design Research Symposium

A little late notice here, but in a few weeks, Arizona State University is hosting a weekend symposium (April 11-13, 2008) on the state-of-the-art in design research:

"This event is initiated and organized by students from the Master of Science in Design and PhD in Environmental Design and Planning programs in an effort to facilitate learning about design research in the context of academic and professional practice. Crafted to maximize interaction, the symposium will include plenary sessions with ample time for conversation, as well as afternoon workshops to deepen understanding of specific methods and topics. The intended audience is anyone who is curious about the practice of research within the context of design."

Some of the more interesting sounding topics include:

• "Design Research Career Development" (Matthew Jordan)
• "A Day in the Life of a Design Researcher: Introspective Ethnography" (Matt Zabel)
• "Statistics, Sex, Dogs, v. Cats, and the Role of Design" (Dan Formosa).

The schedule and list of speakers from academia and industry is provided in the conference flier PDF.

Interactive Gestures: Designing Gestural Interfaces

While Dan Saffer's forthcoming book Interactive Gestures: Designing Gestural Interfaces is not out yet, you can download and read the first chapter.  Aptly titled "Introducing Interactive Gestures", Saffer covers the recent and formative histories of direct manipulation interfaces, as well as key definitions, and relevant usability/design issues in an approachable manner.

The chapter is readable, while still providing appropriate references to human factors principles and technologies.  If you're new to the world of gestural interfaces, this is a great place to get an overview of the field.  If you're already knowledgeable, this is a useful refresher, and you might learn some new terms like "iceberg tips" (touch points that are larger than they visually present).

I did spot one point of dispute.  In his explanation of affordances (p. 30), Saffer refers to James Gibson as a "cognitive psychologist".  While Gibson was a psychologist, his theories of perception were actually contrary to the cognitive movement - Gibson posited a theory of direct perception where information is perceived without the need for any intermediating mental interpretation (i.e., cognition).  A more accurate label would have been "ecological psychologist" - but since that's not a school of perception known by most people, simply "psychologist" would probably be best.

Forgive me for being academic.

Design Research Presentations & Portfolio Review @IDSA NED

Here's the full scoop on the Design Research focus at the upcoming IDSA Northeast district conference in  Philadelphia.  The district conference runs from April 4-6, and the two-part design research part will take place on the morning of Sunday, April 6th:

1. Presentations (around 9:30am):  Conducting design research is essential, but how do you "design" the results of research? We've assembled a panel of professionals from industry and consulting to present the latest techniques in communicating design research. Speakers including Marty Gage (Lextant), Sunmee Kim (Motorola), and Art Swanson (Misys) will share their ideas and examples, followed by a question and answer session moderated by Rob Tannen (Bresslergroup).
2. Design Research Portfolio Review (around 11:00am): For the first time, IDSA is holding a portfolio review session specifically focused on design research. This is open to students and professionals interested in getting feedback and guidance on their design research work. This can range from observational studies to usability testing or anything else that applies. You'll get expert advice from design research professionals in an open, collaborative forum - so nothing confidential please.  This will be a subsection of the general design portfolio review where, so you can get your work reviewed from both the design and research perspectives. 

If you have any questions, please contact me directly at [email protected]

Deconstructing Product Designs

Deconstructing Product Design: Exploring the Form, Function, and Usability of 100 Amazing Products is now available for pre-order.  William Lidwell's quasi-sequel to Universal Principles of Design (my all-time favorite design book), promises to be just as enjoyable and valuable with a balanced format of evidence-backed information and clear visual descriptions.  Looking forward to its near-term release (is it me or are lots of good things scheduled for a March launch)?

*Updated (3/17) - Author William Lidwell has informed me that the March publication date that Amazon has been listing may be premature.  I'll let you know when I know of a more accurate date.  But you can still pre-order.

State of the Art in Interface Design

Coming Soon: Nothing Between You and Your Machine (New York Times) discusses the recent trends in direct manipulation interfaces in consumer products. The popularity of the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone are in large part due to their intuitive user interfaces that utilize physical manipulation to give users a more direct feeling of control.  The re-emergence of voice control as a potential interface medium is also discussed.  The overall shift away from the point and click paradigm may be finally happening:

“I’ve wondered for a long time why the computer interface hasn’t changed from 20 years ago,” said Austin Shoemaker, a former Apple Computer software engineer and now chief technology officer of Cooliris. “People should think of a computer interface less as a tool and more as a extension of themselves or as extension of their mind.”

User-Centered Product Design Award

Call for Entries and Judges

The Product Design Technical Group (PDTG) of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society is again sponsoring a competition for its User-Centered Product Design Award.  The award will emphasize both product design and methods used to specify and achieve the design.  Emphasis will be placed on innovative and user-centered approaches to Human Factors and Industrial Design. 

• Consideration is limited to products, software or systems that are purchased for use in the home, in the workplace, or while mobile. They include consumer, commercial, and medical products, but exclude military equipment or systems.
• The product or system being nominated must be operational and capable of being marketed with no more than minimal changes.
• Products already on the market for more than three years will not be considered.
• At least one team member who contributed significantly to the project must be a member of HFES.  Membership in the Product Design Technical Group is not required.

The nominations should be submitted in electronic form by a human factors professional.  Detailed submission requirements, including the submission format, are shown on the PDTG website at http://pdtg.hfes.org.  More information concerning PDTG and previous User-Centered Product Design Award winners appears at the PDTG website.

The deadline for submitting nominations is April 25th, 2008. Nominations should be submitted electronically to Dianne McMullin at [email protected].

The winning product/system will be recognized at the 2008 HFES Annual Meeting in September, 2008 and the awardees will be asked to present a talk on the product and methodology.  The awardees will also be expected to submit a paper to “Ergonomics in Design” within two months of the meeting. 

An award selection committee consisting of a panel of judges drawn from the PDTG membership will evaluate the submissions.  Judges may award multiple winners or a combination of winners and honorable mentions.  Judging will be done by a predetermined systematic process and will take place in June.

For more information or to volunteer for the award selection committee, please contact Stan Caplan at [email protected].

Back to the Future of Ergonomics

The first issue for 2008's volume of the journal Ergonomics is focused on the future of the field.  While an academic or professional subscription is required to access the volume, the lead article, Bartlett and the future of ergonomics, is available for free online. 

The article takes a retrospective look at Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett's 40+ year old predictions on the future of ergonomics, which were surprisingly insightful and accurate:

"Bartlett predicted that developments in automation and communication technologies were likely to present a significant challenge for Ergonomics. Specific predictions he made seem to derive from overall anticipated changes in working activities, and research foci, as a result of the new technologies. These were:

1. greater physical isolation of individuals;
2. greater demands on technologically-mediated communication;
3. reductions in physical workload;
4. increases in mental workload;
5. combining of the work of several people into the work of one;
6. presentation of multi-modal stimuli;
7. greater emphasis placed upon decision making; and
8. shorter working hours and more leisure time."

The article closes with a look at more recent predictions made by ergonomists, as well as design research practitioners:

"Fulton Suri (2001) proposed the adding of 'empathy' to the armoury of the professional ergonomist. She saw challenges arising from an ever widening field for the application of ergonomics, from resolving conflict between the commercial goals of organisations and the societal goals of maintaining human values and from trying to influence how systems are designed and operated. Fulton Suri saw the role of the ergonomist as being one of a centrally positioned facilitator of effective solutions through being more empathetic to the needs of all concerned."

Beyond this lead article, the content of the special issue contains articles on future ergonomics trends taken from the present context, presented by a range of international experts.  If these experts are nearly as accurate as Bartlett was about the future, then this is clearly worthwhile reading.

On a related note, the Human Factor & Ergonomics Society recently published an article, On the future of ergonomics, based on a survey of their members.  It includes estimates of the ergonomics job market across a number of relevant fields and industries.