Athlete Aid

A Guide for Decision-Making: Marathon Aid Stations

Abstract

An aid station is a temporary facility established to provide supplies to endurance athletes during racing events along the race route to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the participants. Typically, a successful aid station can attribute to a successful race, therefore it is important to understand what makes a successful aid station. Using four scenarios, we have examined the effects on the outcome of the aid station through the volunteer cognitive demand as well as the athlete satisfaction levels. We found that increase temperature conditions has a significant demand on the volunteers and decreases athlete satisfaction. While the earlier aid stations operating under normal conditions has a high demand, the demand decreases in the later aid stations and it is much easier to maintain satisfied athletes.

Objective

This project seeks to identify what makes an aid station successful by focusing on the fluid portion of a marathon distance race aid station during the aid station operation. While there are aid stations in nearly every race, this project does not include shorter races because the time to complete the race is within the time before fluid intake is required, and also excludes longer distances because they are not as common and in longer distances, there is a heavier reliance on the nutrition intake which is much more athlete specific.

Observation

For the observation, we utilized the Des Moines Marathon setting on October 20, 2013. During the observation we employed several techniques to gather data. We employed Flanagan’s (1954) critical incident technique to identify situations that we can use to make predictions about the volunteers performing the tasks such as how and why the cup holding position is significant. We will also use Roth’s (2004) method for cognitive field observation to make inferences on any adaptive strategies in response to the various demands of the aid stations.

Interviews

The second elicitation technique from (Cooke, 1994), unstructured interview, was employed before, during, and after the Des Moines Marathon. The key behind the interview was to identify the level of expertise from each of the volunteers as this wasn’t clear during the aid station operation. The interview questions also targeted basic aid station tasks to identify the reasons behind their actions. Additional questions were asked relating to how the volunteers knew what to do and why volunteers were performing their actions the way they were.

Survey

Following the observation and interviews, a third technique for elicitation of knowledge, a survey, was employed to target a team’s mental model that is independent of the task performance. Knowing that a mental model is more stable over time than a situation model and targets more of the general knowledge associated with an aid station, our questions were based on general aid station function knowledge of what works, what doesn’t work, and what defines the success of an aid station. We then utilized Cooke’s (2000) method of measuring team knowledge to relate the responses to measure expectations associated with an aid station. The complete survey can be found in Appendix B.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this report contributes to the cognitive engineering field to expand on importance of examining the execution factors within a task rather than just focusing solely on a task. This project has highlighted the impact that two small factors, the cup hold and serving position, had on the overall success of an aid station. This project also begins to examine how smaller groups with a mix of novice and experts could be measured rather than measuring them individually. Rather than the task, maybe it is how the object involved is held – need to break down analysis more. Task analysis, it isn’t just about the task at hand, but rather the parts that comprise the task that affect its success.

Athlete Aid

Universal Softball Glove

Objective

In this report, the process for creating the universal softball glove will be explained and evaluated. The first step in the process was to create requirements. This task was completed using surveys from experienced users. The next step was to use concept generation methods such as conducting a literature review, examining existing products, brainstorming, and TRIZ. In order to select a final design, concept selection method of the selection matrix was used. Data was collected on the location of typical catching forces using force sensors. The final design was then created and the prototype was evaluated using another forces sensor test to determine if forces were eliminated and a survey to determine satisfaction and receive user feedback. Overall, the new design was determined to be a success.

TRIZ - The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

In order to accelerate the project team's ability to solve problems creatively, this study used TRIZ which is a problem solving methodology based on logic, data and research. This project used L2 method which is “Pick and Clarify High Impact Contradictions” of TRIZ (Ball et al., 2012).

Step 1: Compare all the knobs on the cause effect diagram and consider which might have a greater impact. These could be high impact contradictions.

• Consider object attributes (padding, shape, size) that cause several alternate problems.

Step 2: Pick one attribute to concentrate on.

• Padding of gloves

Step 3: Consider the knob setting in which the main problem (pressure from ball) goes away.

• Changeable padding to reduce pressure from ball for diverse user

Step 4: Identify what gets worse

• Stability of padding

Step 5: In order to not have the resulting problem the knob setting must be at another setting. This knob setting may not be the most extreme value possible, but sufficiently different that the new problem would be removed for some time to come.

• Making changeable padding for glove by using velcro in order to increase stability of padding.

Step 6: form the Contradiction:

• In order to (avoid pressure from ball for diverse user) the (padding) must be (changeable).
• In order to (stabilize of padding) the (padding) must be (with glued).

Procedure

The process of the experiment was as follows:

1. Pitching machine set-up to correct speed, angle and location
2. Place sensors on index/ middle fingers and right side of left palm (on glove)
3. Software set up
4. Secure cords attached to participant
5. Participant catch 27 pitches at 40mph
6. Swing bat five times
7. Export data

Food Packaging

Usability Redesign of Potato Chips Containers

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the packaging issues regarding the Pringles container and develop a solution centered around human factors usability principles. Two major usability problems were focused which were diameter of container and durability of the chips by any source of vibration. Three different rounds of usability testing were conducted in order to gather sufficient quantitative and qualitative data. Moreover, breaking test was performed in order to consider the design aspect of the amount of broken chips in the Pringles container. As the data suggests, the redesign that receives most customers’ acceptance based on weighted average on each evaluation criteria is the design of “Tray with patting along the side”. Even though the limitation of Pringles containment remain to be quantified, a suggested design of Pringles can has been provided that can be used to focus future research efforts in this direction.

Objective

To investigate the packaging issues regarding the Pringles can and develop a solution centered around human factors usability principles.

Method and Procedures

Three rounds of usability testing were performed in order to gather sufficient quantitative and qualitative data. Each test followed the same basic process, but varied in its purpose and subject group. Every usability test started with a briefing on the project, as well as a verbal disclosure to the participants that their personal information will not be used or published and the collected data will only be used for a class project. The sample groups used for each test were limited to college aged adults, but each individual varied in background, academic major, ethnicity, gender, and experience. Every participant was asked to fill out Form C (see Appendix A) regarding their general opinions on products. The values gathered from every person were averaged and used as the weights for the overall performance of each can. There were three aspects to each test – an observation period, an interview, and a survey. The observations and interviews were used as a means of qualitative data collection and the surveys acted as a quantitative way to summarize the subject’s opinions and experiences. The observation portion in all three tests gave the analysts the opportunity to watch each subject work with the can of chips, as well as, capture data that the subjects didn’t, or couldn’t, verbally express. Each can of chips presented was only half full in order to note different methods on obtaining the least accessible chips, the struggles, and the successes. The subjects were then asked three questions:

1. What did you like about this can?
2. What didn’t you like about this can?
3. What would you change or improve about this can?

Question three was only asked if the subjects provided an answer for question two. Finally, each participant filled out a brief survey. The study was concluded with a debriefing that consisted of thanking each person for their time, explaining the next steps in the project, and how their data will play into the overall results.

Conclusion

This project has considered some of the ways in which effective and efficient packaging in order to increase usability and improve food protection. Even though the limitation of Pringles containment remain to be quantified, a suggested design of Pringles can has been provided that can be used to focus future research efforts in this direction. According to the results of four different tests in this study, the redesign that receives most customers’ acceptance and popularity based on weighted average on each evaluation criteria is the design of “Tray with patting along the side”. However, there are still problems that limit the scope of this study, so that the study is still biased, if this study includes the elements of advertisement, marketing or other related subjects, we may have a different result.

Reference

https://news.engineering.iastate.edu/2014/05/04/revived-imse-product-design-course-emphasizes-teamwork