IB Design and Technology Product Design Ergonomics – Bad Human factors design!!!!

Ergonomics Ergonomics, in all of it’s varied fields, is to do with the interaction of the Human and the Product. Safety in the use of products and systems is now primarily thought of in terms of ergonomics.

Bad Human Factors Design The following slides identify a number of products which illustrate poor ergonomic design. For each product, identify the area of ergonomics that has been ill-considered and comment on how it could be improved. All of the examples are taken from http://www.baddesigns.com

Kitchen Timer This is a nice little kitchen timer unless you want to set a time less than 15 minutes. To do so you must first turn the indicator to a time greater than 15 minutes and then turn it back to the time you actually want! There is no indication of this on the front of the timer. What ends up happening is that you set times less than 15 minutes without first turning the indicator past 15 minutes. Then the timer doesn't go off.

How do you open the toothpaste? I recently took a vacation that involved flying across the ocean. Since it was a long overnight flight, passengers were provided with little "kits" including a toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste, slippers and so on. I tried to get some sleep on the flight, and when I awoke, I went to the lavatory to freshen up. When I unscrewed the cap from the tiny tube of toothpaste, I discovered the tube was sealed. Since I didn't have anything with me to pierce the seal, I tried to pop out the seal by squeezing the tube. This resulted in the side of the tube splitting open and sending toothpaste all over my trousers! How do you open the toothpaste? When I got back to my seat, I told my wife about my experience. She showed me how the seal could be broken by using the small piercing tool in the top of the toothpaste cap. (See arrow.)

We were late for the recital We were late for the recital. We quickly parked the car in the college parking lot, and then saw a sign saying we had to buy a parking permit. Dashing over to the parking permit machine, I took a dollar from my wallet and tried to insert it into the bill reader (See white arrow). It would not go into the bill reader! I turned the dollar one way and then the other way, trying to get the bill reader to respond, but it would not respond at all. It was getting late. "It's out of order!", I told my friend, "Let's just skip the parking permit and go to the recital!" Out of Order? What was the problem? As it turned out, to buy a permit, you first have to push a button (any button) on the parking permit machine. This activates the bill reader. It clearly says this on the machine in large print.

How does this open? At my new job there is a refrigerator where employees put their lunches. The first time I tried to open the refrigerator I didn't see a handle on the front, but I found one on the left side of the door. (See arrow.) I pulled on the handle, but the door would not open. I thought maybe the refrigerator door had a really strong seal, so I pulled harder. I pulled so hard the whole refrigerator started moving! Someone standing nearby told me, "It opens from the other side. I had the same problem when I first tried to open it."

Opening the file drawer#1 Recently, we got new file cabinets in our offices. The new file cabinets fit under our tables and are on wheels. During the first week that I used my file cabinet, when I tried to open the top file drawer, I found myself pulling the handle on the top (See arrow.) Guess what happened?

Opening the file drawer #2 As shown in the photo, the handle on the top doesn't open the top file drawer. Instead, it pulls the whole file cabinet out from under the table, which I accidentally did quite often during that first week! When I visited other people's offices, I noticed that they were having the same problem. The problem is that the handle to move the cabinet is very close to the top drawer and it is more obvious than the actual handle (See arrow) for the top drawer. Thus, it is easy to mistake the top handle as the handle for the top drawer. One is much more likely to want to open the file drawer than to move the cabinet, so the handle to move the cabinet should be less obvious.

Which side cuts? This is a nice attractive knife. Just one problem. Which side do you use for cutting? Although you can tell which end is the handle and which end is the blade, it isn't clear which side of the blade cuts.

Which side opens? Can you guess which side of the bar to press to open the middle door? There is no obvious visual indication. If you press on the wrong side (the side with the hinges) it is very difficult to push open. It takes a lot of force.

Doors without windows This picture shows a set of doors in the hallway of a university building. Imagine reaching to pull open these doors just when someone on the other side is pushing them open.

Hiding the Radio. This is the centre console in a rental car showing how the cup holder is blocking access to the radio and cassette player. Its nice to have a cup holder, but this isn't a very good spot for it. Not only is it hard to use the radio, but if your drink spills, its going into the cassette player!

Path of least resistance. This picture shows the view from the door of one building to the door of another. A lot of people walk between these two doors. Whoever designed this court yard had the walkways go around both sides of the court yard. Notice the dirt path between the two doors? (See arrow.) People have worn this path by stepping over the wall and walking across what used to be the grass. This path shows where the walkway should be.