Human Factors and Ergonomics

Topic 1: Human Factors and Ergonomics

• Design is human-centered, ensuring products fit users of all sizes
• Considers user interaction and potential misuse
• Anthropometric data varies across populations, impacting clothing sizes
• Human Factors combines ergonomics and anthropometrics.
• Ergonomics applies scientific understanding of human-object relationships.

Aims of Human Factors

• Reduces stress and fatigue
• Increases speed, ease, and safety, minimizing errors.
• Enhances operational comfort
• Improves overall system performance, reliability and maintenance.

Types of Ergonomics

• Physical ergonomics deals with posture, workplace layout, material handling, and injury prevention.
• Cognitive ergonomics focuses on mental processes like perception and memory.
• Organizational ergonomics addresses communication, work design, teamwork, and management practices.

Anthropometric Data Types

• Static Data, also known as Structural data, involves fixed measurements like height or arm length
• Dynamic Data, also known as Functional data, considers measurements during physical activities like crawling or reaching.

Tools for Collecting Anthropometric Data

• Sliding Callipers,Cloth Tape, Sitting height meters, Stadiometer are all tools that can be used for collecting anthropmetric data.

Percentiles

• Indicates if a measurement is average or above/below average in a population
• Interpreting tables required to adapt products
• Usually take into account the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles
• Consider different national populations, gender, and age for accurate interpretations.

Clearance

• The minimum distance required for users to enter or pass through an area
• Vital for emergency exits and safety hatches.

Reach (Workspace Envelope)

• Encompasses the 3D space where physical work occurs at a fixed location
• Designs should accommodate the 5th percentile of users, ensuring 95% reach necessary elements.

Adjustability

• Needed in designs to suit various users
• Examples Car seats that are adjustable so that they fit children better.
• Manufacturers create size ranges based on percentiles, like clothing sizes

Ergonome

• A 2D scaled anthropometric model used with drawings to assess object-human relationships.
• Useful for 2D orthographic drawings and field of vision modeling.

Manikin

• A 3D anatomical model of the human body for assessing body-spatial arrangement relationships.
• More expensive than ergonomes and provides better ergonomic representation, useful for crash-test simulations

Topic 1.2: Psychological Factors

• Considers the variability in human psychology
• Considers the impact of touch, taste, and smell which is more personal preference rather than checkable fact

Cognitive Ergonomics

• Concerned with mental processes, perception, memory etc
• Factors influence interactions between people and systems.

Methods for Collecting Psychological Data

• Observation
• Surveys & Interviews
• Standardized Testing
• Case Studies

Nominal Data Scale

• Classifies objects or names into discrete groups
• Does not measure within or between categories.

Ordinal Data Scale

• Deals with item order or position
• Cannot quantitatively assess data

Interval Data Scale

• Organized into even intervals of equal size
• No true zero point exists

Ratio Data Scale

• Has a true zero point, allowing comparison between number differences
• Examples: weight or height

Examples of Psychological Factors

• Smell
• Light
• Sound
• Taste
• Texture
• Temperature

Human Information Processing Systems

• They use input, sensory processes, central processors, and output
• Simple systems affecting hearing, vision, comfort, and health

Environmental Factors

• May affect hearing, vision, comfort, and health.
• Breaks may occur due to age, skill, disability, frailty
• Maximising workplace personal ability, alertness, age, fatigue
• Noise, temperature, pollutants, signage play in maximising workplace performance.

Alertness

• Awareness of the immediate vicinity
• Understanding one's actions impact on goals

Human Error

• Slips occur from automatic behavior
• Mistakes stem from conscious, but incorrect, deliberations

Environmental Factors for Optimised Output

• Optimized by lighting, thermal comfort, workspace, noise, vibration

Perception

• Human mind perceives whole objects over individual parts

Topic 1.3 Physiological Factors

Bodily Tolerances

• How much the body can withstand
• How much pressure user can put on a body when interacting with products

Physical Ergonomics

• Concerned with human anatomy and biomechanical characteristics relating to product creation

Human Values

• Quality of life, improved safety, reduced fatigue

Fatigue

• Reduced speed with physical and mental effects

Comfort

• Qualitative consideration, different for everyone

Ergonomics

• Creates a healthier workforce, enhances productivity, reduces sick days

Biomechanics

• Research and analysis of mechanics of the body

Muscle Strength Factors

• Repetition, posture, age, duration, force, gender,

Topic 2: Resource Management and Sustainable Production

Resources

• Supplies available in context

Renewable Resources

• Sources replenishable with time and careful management i.e. plantation of timber.
• Typically uses wind and solar

Non-renewable Resources

• Non-replenishing source with insufficient rate for sustainable extraction
• Typically relates to coal, petroleum, natural gas, fossil fuels, minerals and ores.

Renewable Resources

• Inexhaustible
• Not affected by human activities
• Less Carbon release
• Most are more expensive to implement,
• Examples hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, wind, tidal

Non Renewable Resources

• Fixed and with limited amounts
• Exhaustible
• Increased Carbon releases
• Less expensive to implement,
• Examples coal, timber, natural gas, oil, nuclear

Resources

• Identified reserves assessed in quantity and quality by available.
• Energy reserves projected based on data to prevent unobtainable substances or quality deterioration..
• Mining of oil sands currently uneconomical.

Renewability

• Resource able to replenish or inexhaustible
• Conesrving resources and improving energy efficiency

Impacts

• The impact of multinational corporations obtaining resources in different regions has the potential to be a significant issue for locals and could have environmental or social/ethical impac
• Development of sustainable resources is a major challenge

Topic 2.2 Waste Mitigation Strategies

• These strategiers can reduce or eliminate the volume of material sent to landfills

Mitigation Strategies

• Re-Use existing products in more contexts to eliminate waste
• Repair can mend, restore, or service and expand the life-cycle of a product.
• Re-engineer redesigns products and implements lighter new materials to improve performance.
• Recycle allows the materials for waste can be used to create other products
• Reconditioning rebuilds products used for car engines tires etc.
• Dematerialization means reduction of the amount of product used in "do more with less" mentality
• Developing new bio-fuels reduces pollutant impact.

Developing Awareness

• Awareness of consumers by making consumers and manufactuers aware of pollutants i.e: EU "take back program
• Following guidelines set up by the ISO international standards organization for pollution i.e 14000 and 1400

Designing Out Waste

• Monitor with methods of disposing of materials - product recovery strategies at disposal.
• Circular economy - using materials through reuse product design should work together to be environmentally friendly.
• External drivers have increasing supply chain pressure, public views, energy/waste charges, Norms and standards

Topic 2.3

• Energy Utilization, Storage and Distribution Waste mitigation strategies.
• Several factors should be considered with respect to energy and design- its use, consevation, and efficiency.
• Designer attempts to reduce the amount of energy required to process energy consumption. Reduce new technologies/ creativity.

Embodied Energy

• accounts for all the energy requred to produce a product, energy effectiveness through saving resources and energy used in each step etc.

Distribution Energy, grid systems

• distributed between grids and energy loss from collection to affect how to limit energy consumption on distribution
• Distributing energy through use of combined heat and power (CHP)is used either to replace or supplement.
• Advantages of CHP Reduced energy and emissions costs etc. Reduces need to waste heat at factories.

Generation

• Systems for individual energy generation are developed including micro generation of power or electricity. E.g: Solar and wind or rainwater.
• Quantification of emmisions through recording: Discovers much production is occurring/ discover who, where product comes from, and the footprint produced

Human factors involved

• Reducing Global Warming by human intervention
• Batteries capacities to store energy
• Batteries impacts rated from High to Medium through safety standards.

2.4 Clean Tech

• Clean Technology aims to reduce waste/pollution from industries that contain water, minerals, or transportation
• Minimimises the amount of non-renewable resources by using clean tech
• Cleaner manufacturers may respond or increase the product with media.
• promotes or has a mininal/ nuetrual impact by cutting down emissions etc.

Geographical Problems

• Types of environmental issues include noise and smells, soil pollution and water
• Scale can be measured based on the impact is has. The climatic location helps limit the geographical scale of the environmental problems which can influence the spread

Legislation

• Role and regulation depends on type of manufacturing in different countries
• Governemnts and politicians can introduce measures to promote change, and have companies bound to legislation to protect from impact pollution

international and End production

• International targets are to reduce pollution: agreed upon and disputed from countries to protect wealth, and still prevent negative impact
• End production reduces emmisions or pollutants

system solutions

• help leaders understand existing legislation and impacts on the market

Topic 3: Green Design

• Green design integrates environmental considerations into the design without compromising intergrity.
• Green legislation encourages approaches and designs in sustainable products.

Incremental innovation

• Is to improve an existing design which improve component, improve output with feedback.

Radical innovation

• New elements to products and architecture and distinctly produce new product due to customer needs, and creates a new product.

Green Implementation

• often takes time for Governments + Manufacturers and minimises costs by using approaches to minimize the cost
• Environmental regulations have encouraged the designs of greener products from eliminating used components.
• Can be implemented quickly in 2-5 years to be cost effective. Government needs environmental causes for changes, in reducing the destructive effect

Costumers pressure

• From media focuses on destructing effects and pressures corporations for solutions CFC gases have been found to be destructibve
• Drivers for desgin incluse costumer presure and environmental regulations in place

Design objectives

• Increase efficicncy of material and use on sources preventin pollution from materials
• Insures the impact on environment is the safest it can be and can follow instructions to be efficient
• Raw material from energy can be used in design- packiging or use of toxic chemicals

materials for designers

• How much damage done when extracting material used for design and production

Energy conservation

• Can reduce amounts of energy to manufacture and use the product

pollution and waste

• What is likely to happen whe the product os out dste and increase chance of repair through pollution reductions
• Product Health must maximize saftey for product reduction by looking and assessming operation to be efficient
• Antipation in product design is through environmental impact with risks to be very costly or irreversible
• Use lower lever of harm through consideration in policy making

Topic 2.6 Eco design

• Design that measures through lifecycle analysis (LCA)
• Efficient energy used through designers as well as the effect to balance all aspects of three categories: material, energy, pollution/waste
• internal can affect the need for an economic design

Manual used to accesss effects

• In 1996 eco-desgin released and know as a d4s sustainibility

Increasing:

increases recyclability.

• reduce requirements of sources, maximaizes use sources for redcution and durablity

Design for environement

Software that allows designers the chance to perform its lca

Stages of design

• Responsibilty designer to select and implement designs, with considerations water and air conditions, waste or energy from the design Synergy between all technology and typical example of a converged technique used with portability and designs

Topic 3: 3.1 Conceptual Modelling

Conceptual Model

• Originated in the mind and is meant to outline principles, processes and basis functions of a design and systems to stimulate subjects

Varry in relation to text

• Help assist and understand algorhythsm processes and systems
• Graphics models sketch data and physical like printing and styrofoam

Visual Modelling

• Computer-aided design (CAD) surface of modelling of data
• Servive design is the activity of planning organizing and planning around communications

Communicate

• Use models to communocate ideas that are hard to imagine

models in a advantage v. disadvantage

• Advantage Share big models / communicatw with users.
• Disadvtantage can lack details or can bemisinterpted

Topic 3.2

• Graphics modeks used to communicate ideas and make then better. Simplify and utilize solution
• Different for what is feasible with the graphics techniques.
• Graphic model: is a 2d model with the designers idea

Different processes

Drawings show as in irl.

• Iso shows the product accurately from view, must have 3 views to be made with manufacture capabilities (Isometric perspective)
• Scales can be used if showing in production

Different Techniques

• Models of graphics in different design. Formal or informal, communicate, to detail and show in different ways.
• Part drawing with list of materials, can be helpful to provide to the production and to show
• assemble with type of parts to create a product.

Topic 3.3: Physical Modelling

• Model with that are tangible for systems. This testing checks users requirmenrs and thoroughting at design stage ensures a fitting product.
• The three steps are to make it use identify and to problem solve.
• Scale models can be overvalued.
• Model is over large to hard or show manipulation due to restrictions in use.

models

aesthetic are use d look and feel finished, test for visual appeal and is well represented.

• mockup used for user scale for ideas from a design.
• function can be a model of all functions to how together what how product to use functions to.

Fidelity ranges

ranges on how all systems set to function from is made

• models that equipment have can is taken can design for how system in working or not.

Topic 3.4 Computer-Aided Design (CAD)

• CAD is the generation creation and analysis of the developments of systems
• The ability to virtually prototype all the products.
• surface model is a image of what produced to not show inside of prodcuts
• solid model all clear to is produced in a set amount of dimension and volume

3.5 Rapid Proto

• model for designing with data.
• software can be used to see images

4.1Properties of Materials

• Based on properties, with an impact to their choice of new meterials
• Right materials selected can test on aesthetic or ethical purposes

physical properties

• • characterisric of materials that can be non-destructive to see hardness scale.

Mass-

relates to how material is contained

volume-

is amount of space enclosed.

Electrical resistivith-

measuse a materials for condicting ability

hardness-

opposed to penetration or scratching.

Tensille strong

• withstand pulling forces.

4.3 Scale Production

• number of products required, through influence for the amount, time and labor, and amount of people.
• types include: one-off, batch. mass is the quantity amount produced and automated machines

4.4.Manufacturing Processes

Additive Technologies

paper rapid prototype to glue 3d model

Subtracture Technologies

the process where one wastes and cutting products to turn materials

ShaapingTechniques

process materials to get new forms

Joining Techniques

The method of joining materials through heat, temporary permanent to bond them

4.6 Robots and automation production

• design has to be easily designed and automated for manufacturing design

Robotic advantages

the main thing it does is design and is versatile

Explore human-centered design, user interaction, and anthropometric data in ergonomics. Discover how physical, cognitive, and organizational ergonomics enhance comfort and safety. Learn how to reduce stress, improve system performance, and prevent injuries.