Ian McClelland

Marketing ergonomics to industrial designers

This paper reviews the relationship betweenergonomicsand industrial designbased on papers presented at the ‘Marketing Ergonomics’ conference. The discussion is organized under the sections: know your user, what should we influence? use of basic data and information, research methods and techniques, concluding remarks. The main conclusions are that the effective application of ergonomics willdepend on the ergonomist being an active participant in the design process. The ergonomists must also see their role in strategic terms in relation to the objectiveof synthesizingappropriate designsolutions. The demand that high levelsof usability are designed into products must be placed on the design process as much as on the individual designer.It is argued that influencingthe attitudes and skillsof individual designers is necessary but not sufficient to ensure that ergonomics issues receive appropriate attention during product development.

The development of a touch screen based communications terminal

Abstract This paper discusses a successful attempt to improve the design of a communications terminal for professional applications involving significant improvements to customer and operator contact, and improving the level of operator focus during the design phase. This included visits to sites to capture requirements through interview and observation of working practices, and to get insight into typical communication tasks. A clear task focus was maintained during the design phase by using a dialogue description tool, the Task Action Description, developed in-house to support the integration of the dialogue specification, the graphic design and the software design. Customer and operator feedback on the design was obtained. The value of team work is also discussed. The success of the design can be attributed to a direct involvement of users in the development process and to the integration of human factors specialists, graphic designers, software engineers and marketing experts in the development team. The conclusions drawn highlight: (1) the importance of direct first hand exposure to the daily working environment of the operators by the team as a whole; (2) the problem of how to articulate operator requirements in such a form that they are taken into account in the design development; and (3) the progressive evolution of organisations and changes in work practices.

The multimedia library: the center of an information rich community

Due to the rapid development of information and multimedia technology, the information and services available within a Public Library are changing. This design project, executed by Philips Corporate Design in cooperation with the Public Library of Eindhoven, approached the library not as a digital catalogue but as the center of a community, a place to gather, communicate with others, and a place to obtain and exchange information with anybody about anything. Library (non) -users investigations provided information regarding the current state and perception of the library, the catalogue, as well as to desired improvements, services and tools. The design process and the initial designs of these services and tools are presented.

User centred design principles—how far have they been industrialised?

The human computer interaction (HCI) community has a long association with the development of user centred design principles (UCD) and usability engineering. In fact it could be said that user centred design is, together with the opportunities offered by computer technology, the prime driver in developing the HCI field. We would like to review the extent to which UCD principles and working practices are an established part of system and product development processes within industry.

The applied ergonomics group at Philips

INTRODUCTION This paper outlines who we are, our perspective on usability, some of the challenges that face us, and gives insight into some of our project work.

The Development of a Touch Screen Based Communications Terminal

This paper discusses the design of a communications terminal for professional applications. The development work included visits to sites to capture requirements through interview and observation of working practices, and to get insight into typical communication tasks. A clear task focus was maintained during the design phase by using a dialogue description tool developed in-house to support the integration of the dialogue specification, the graphic design and the software design. Customer and operator feedback on the design was obtained. The success of the design can be attributed to a direct involvement of users in the development process and to the integration of different specialists in the development team.