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Designers study various types of physiological factor data to optimize the user’s safety, health, comfort and performance.
As a designer we need to have full understanding of all interaction between the user and the product and how human values, quality of life, improved safety, reduced fatigue and stress, increased comfort levels and job satisfaction are enhanced. The following needs to be considered how users interacts with products:
effectiveness (completeness and accuracy)
efficiency (speed and effort)
engagement (pleasantness and satisfaction)
error tolerance (error prevention and error recovery)
learnability (predictability and consistency)
Physiological factors have more to do with bodily tolerances (how much can the body withstand) such as comfort and fatigue and some physical limitations include:
How the body moves
Hand/eye coordination
Strength
Size
Stamina - muscle strength/endurance in different body positions
Visual sensitivity ie. to light
Tolerance to extremes of temperature
Frequency and range of human hearing
Body Tolerances: How much the body can withstand when using or working with a product
Fatigue is a person's sense of physical or psychological tiredness. When people get tired they react in different ways. Fatigue is the temporary diminishment of performance. Fatigue can be physical and/or mental. Fatigue can inform design decisions and can affect users.
Comfort is a qualitative consideration and differs massively between different people. Comfort is a physiological factor that informs design decisions and can affect users.
Designing ergonomically enhanced work environments and products have advantages for the employer and employee.
Healthy Workforce: Instead of workers adjusting to standard tools and equipment, ergonomics promotes product designing based on human body structure and requirements. Therefore, these products drastically reduce the strain workers experience due to repetitive use of machines, computers, scanners, industrial apparatus and related instruments. Less strain equates to reduced instances of occupational illnesses and therefore healthier employees.
Enhanced Productivity: A healthy workforce translates to enhanced productivity. Easy to use equipment keeps the work momentum going on for longer durations. Workers experience less fatigue and are happy to use tools designed especially for them.
Reduced Number of Sick Days Reported: People with reduced instances of work associated ailments implies they take fewer days off due to sickness and work more number of days in a year. This means a lesser number of workdays is lost.
Savings: By using ergonomic workstations, employers save huge amounts of money otherwise spent in compensation claims, treatments and litigation.
Biomechanics in human factors includes the research and analysis of the mechanics (operation of our muscles, joints, tendons, etc.) of our human body.
The importance of biomechanics to the design of different products considering muscle strength, age, user interface and torque. Measuring the amount of force put on the muscles and joints of people when working in different positions can be tested by determining which positions make use of an individual’s muscular strength.
Biomechanics in human factor design deals with four key criteria:
Force (compression/push, torsion/squeeze, torque/twisting). Factors affecting muscle strength with human factors include gender, age, Greatest around 20’s then 5% less in 40’s and 20% less in 60’s, pain, physical training schedule, immobilization or bed bound
Repetition: Many work tasks and cycles are repetitive in nature, and are frequently controlled by hourly or daily production targets and work processes. High task repetition, when combined with other risks factors such high force and/or awkward postures, can contribute to the formation of musculoskeletal disorder
Duration: Refers to continuous muscular effort. Even small exertions continuously held are as stressful to the human tissues.
Posture: Posture refers to "the carriage of the body as a whole, the attitude of the body, or the position of the arms and legs". It is the position in which you hold your body upright against gravity while standing, sitting or lying down.
Use the examples below to explain the importance of biomechanical factors to making the design a success.
Eg; Torsion (twist or turning), Compression (squeeze), Tensile (pull), Bending (usually a two-handed operation), Shear
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