Hee-Sok Park

Enhancement of web design quality through the QFD approach

This study shows a way to develop web design guidelines through the quality function deployment (QFD) approach. The voice of the customer (VOC) and design elements were collected from a group of users and web design experts. Design elements that have an impact on the search performance and subjective sensibility of the users were identified. Desirable levels of several design elements were then investigated by experiments. To quantify the effects of the design elements on the search performance and subjective sensibility of the users, simulators were designed and used in experiments. Performance tests showed that the location of the table of contents and the method of menu display have significant influence on the search time. Sensibility assessment tests showed that brighter background makes the users feel more comfortable. Yellow header and scanning column makes users feel the page has simplicity and sensibility, while blue or green make the users feel balanced. The text style does not have an impact on the sensibility of the users. Our results clearly showed that QFD could produce specific data useful for such new business areas as web design.

Workers' Perception of the Changes of Work Environment and its Relation to the Occurrence of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) refer to a collection of painful disorders of muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage, or spinal discs that are caused or made worse by work conditions. The physical risk factors of WMSDs include: repetitive, forceful, or prolonged exertions; frequent or heavy lifting; pushing, pulling, or carrying of heavy objects; prolonged awkward postures; and vibration. Jobs or working conditions that combine risk factors may increase the risk of WMSDs. Although the physical risk factors are important ones, there are also plausible factors that may provoke a disorder or indirectly influence other risk factors, such as organizational and psychosocial factors. Individual factors may also influence the degree of risk from specific exposures. In many industrialized countries, WMSDs have become a major problem of occupational health, and are the leading causes of lost-time. In Korea, the number of WMSDs compensations has drastically increased from 128 in 1995 to 4,112 in 2004, the latter number representing 44.8% of total occupational disease compensations. In Korea, the societal attention to WMSDs has grown much since the national economic crisis of 1998. At the end of 1997, the Korean economy fell into a crisis triggered by a shortage of foreign exchange, and Korea had to receive IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) relief aid in 1998. After that, Korea has been struggling not only to reform its monetary system, but also to promote drastic reforms in its economic structure with the aim of improving the productivity of Korean industry. However, it is widely perceived in Korea that the economic crisis caused changes in the work environment due to downsizing of work forces and increased work load. The objective of this survey was to study how Korean workers’ perceived the changes in their work environment during the post-IMF period of 2001–2003, and to investigate if there is any relation between the perception of changed working conditions and the occurrence of WMSDs. Workers at a major automotive company in Korea were studied for this purpose.

A Review on the Relationship of Ergonomics and Industrial Hygiene

Objective: The objective of this paper is to examine the scope of ergonomics in relation to the discipline of industrial hygiene. Background: There has been increasing recognition of the importance of ergonomics in the practice of industrial hygiene. As a result, quite a number of ergonomics-related research articles have been published in major industrial hygiene journals. And the professional engineers in industrial hygiene have conducted ergonomics-related activities. Method: This paper reports the results from the literature review of the ergonomics papers published in major industrial hygiene journals for the last 5 years, and the certification of industrial hygiene and ergonomics. Results: It was found that 7.7~13% of the total published papers were about ergonomics, and the number of the professional engineers in industrial hygiene is almost double of that of ergonomics. Conclusion: It should be understood that the work of ergonomic is complementary to industrial hygiene and not in competition with it. Application: Some suggestions were proposed hopefully helpful to colleague ergonomists for future research.

Multidimensional quality assessment of multimedia telecommunications systems for enhancing customer satisfaction

The primary objective of this research is to establish and quantify the relationship between the quality factors of multimedia telecommunications systems and subjective human perception of the system quality. Three quality factors (explanatory variables) were considered: degree of voice delay (time-lag between audio and video), frame rate per second, and display resolution. For assessing the human sensibilities of the system, a number of adjectives were selected and abstracted to eight representative syllables (response variables) using semantic differential (SD) scales and factor analysis. Simulators were developed in two sound-treated chambers equipped with audio/video equipment running under a custom-developed software program. Experiments showed that the voice delay and frame rate have a significant impact on the subjective perception of the system quality. An aggregated sensibility index was also established to verify the adequacy of the selected response variables. A linear regression model with indicator variables showed that the index agrees well with the users’ overall satisfaction for each experimental condition. The results provide some fundamental data on the human subjective perception of multimedia telecommunications quality, and further can help establish the quality standards to enhance customer satisfaction.

A Study to Develop the Framework of Estimating the Cost of Replacing Labor Due to Job-Loss Caused by Injuries Based on the Results from Time Study in Agriculture of Korea

Measuring the time for human-driven agricultural work and establishing the standard time for the work are essential for estimating compensation or insurance cost when work-related damage and/or disaster are occurred. Our study aims to investigate the steps required for cultivating crops, and try to estimate the time and amount of job-loss due to the injuries occurring in the agricultural environment. From the analysis we found the work time recorded in the diary was greater than the time measured using GPS by 7% on average. Additionally, we develop the Excel-based macro application that can calculate the costs for the replacing labor forces based upon the data obtained from the time study.

Suggestion of a Method to Assess the Risk Level of Agricultural Works Considering Work Posture and Working Time

○cc This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective: A method to assess the risk level of agricultural works considering work posture and working time was suggested, and the method was applied to the major fruit crops.

A Review on the Application of Eye-tracking in Design Areas

Objective: This study aims to examine domestic literature on eye-tracking in the design area, and to present new eye-tracking application directions. Background: Eye-tracking was introduced in the experimental psychology field for the first time in the 1950s. Eye-tracking has high utilization values in the design application area because eye-tracking can accumulate data on what people see, providing the quantitative values on eye movement. Method: This study examined the papers published in domestic journals, as well as the papers presented in conferences from 2000 to 2016 through DBPIA. Results: Although the use of eye-tracking technology was slightly meager in the product design area, it has been actively used for the evaluation analyses of preference and attention in architecture/public design. Eye-tracking also presented a method to design advertisement that is helpful to advertisement effect measurement, and product salesin the advertisement design area. Since detail psychological analysis is possible, the application of eye-tracking in the studies related with user interface has been active. Conclusion: The eye-tracking technology is projected to be actively used as a new interface means, such as in helping in disabled peoples communication and in device control, in addition to conventional application areas. Application: This study would be of help to find future research areas of eye-tracking.

Analysis of Work Time in Agriculture Through Time-Diary Method and Evaluation of the Reliability of the Data Using GPS Device

Objective: In this paper, work time for the representative fruit crops are collected and analyzed using time-diary method, and the collected data were compared with the directly observed work time using GPS device. Background: There is no consistent conclusion which measurement method for work time is accurate. Most of the research results were collected from the environment other than rural area. Therefore, there is need to review reliability of the measurement methods for the agricultural work which are carried out for a long duration. Method: Top five crops (apple, pear, grape, sweet persimmon, and peach) were selected according to the number of farms and cultivation areas. We let fruit growers fill a work diary during one cropping period. A difference between the work-time that was recorded by the farmers and the direct observed worktime using GPS device were analyzed. Results: Average direct work time for the five fruit crops found to be 7.1% of the total work time. Conclusions and Applications: Reliability was secured by recording the daily work diary at each work stage while aware that direct observation is carried on. Data which are being collected by government institutions are obtained by the memories of the respondents. Therefore, it is needed to try the method adopted by this study in order to collect more accurate data.

Trend of Human Vibration Research in Korea

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of the research on human vibration in Korea. Background: There have been relatively less interests in vibration than other ergonomic factors in Korea. However, the importance of vibration is increasing as industry and everyday life are more mechanized. Method: This study reports the results of the literature review on the papers about human vibration published in ergonomics-related domestic journals. Results: It was found that more studies have been done on local vibration than on whole body vibration. Diverse topics have been studied in ergonomics community. Conclusion: Further cutting-edge studies are expected than classical safety and health related ones. Application: Some suggestions were proposed hopefully helpful to colleague ergonomists for future research.

Work Posture Analysis Using Digital Ergonomic Simulation

The objective of this study was to investigate the validity of the digital ergonomic simulation (DES) method as a prospective alternative to the ergonomic analyses conducted by experts. The DES method utilizes commercial digital manufacturing software, and can compute the RULA scores continuously throughout the simulated work cycle. It was shown in a case study that the accuracy and objectivity of the DES method are superior to those obtained by experts. Also, it was demonstrated that the DES method has a distinct capability to simulate and validate a proposed work plan. Major limitations of the current DES method lie in the extensive time and efforts required for accurate digital simulation, which may be overcome through an automatic module for RULA data acquisition and a motion capture system.