Ergonomics Teaching within Industrial Design: an Evaluation of Understanding

Elaine Mackie

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

    38 Downloads (Pure)
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationContemporary Ergonomics and Human Factors 2011: Proceedings of the international conference on Ergonomics & Human Factors 2011, Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, 12-14 April 2011
    EditorsMartin Anderson
    Place of PublicationUK
    PublisherCRC Press
    ISBN (Print)9780415675734
    Publication statusPublished - 10 May 2011

    Bibliographical note

    This paper was given at the international conference on Ergonomics & Human Factors 2011, Stoke Rochford, Lincolnshire, 12-14 April 2011. Author's note: - This paper is significant because it identified threshold concepts within ergonomics teaching. This builds on work by Perkins (1999) and that undertaken by Meyer and Land (2003). It extends these findings and through a questionnaire approach it established anthropometry as a threshold concept in design education. The paper is original since it indicates that a procedural and transitional phase in learning has to occur from a personal to a wider appreciation of people’s body sizes thereby contributing to the conceptual framework of learning within the field of automotive and transport design. This has consequences for design education nationally and internationally to ensure that students acquire this critical knowledge. This paper offers recommendations as to how this knowledge might be acquired by having students demonstrate and reflect upon their own proportions when evidencing their understanding of ergonomics in the context of accommodating wider population characteristics.
    The research was presented at the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors Conference where it was requested that the accompanying PowerPoint presentation slides be shared with the UCD (User Centred Design) schools campaign board members by the Course Director, UCL (University College London) Interaction Centre as the research was considered significant in the campaign in broadening the teaching of ergonomics material within the school curriculum.

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