Our client engaged us to create a two-day workshop to introduce their internal stakeholders to both physical and cognitive human factors -- ergonomics and human information processing.
We spent a day in in-depth coverage of ergonomics, including a brief history of the field. We delved into topics well beyond body dimensioning, including strength and endurance, reaction times, work output and costs, sensory responses, control configurations, and many others. We explored how each topic impacts how humans use products and how those products should be designed for optimum performance. We introduced the concept of universal design and how designing for accessibility results in improvements for all users, not only those with disabilities. The second day was spent in explorations of the quirks of human information processing and perception, and how those can influence the ways in which a person interacts with a product. We provided basic overviews of human perceptual structures, including their capabilities and how those change as people age. We provided an overview of Gestalt psychology and how principles such as grouping and proximity influence meaning and what those phenomena mean for design. We discussed attention, memory, mental workload, and decision-making, and how each should impact product design to ensure ease of use. The sessions included physical and cognitive demonstrations and exercises designed to illustrate the concepts on an intuitive level. The workshop was a valuable learning experience for the participants, as it helped them to understand the importance of human factors and ergonomics in product design, and it gave them the tools they need to improve the usability of their products.