In recent years, with the advent of e-Commerce the need for personalized services and one-to-one marketing has been emphasized. To be successful in increasingly competitive Internet marketplace, it is essential to capture customer loyalty. In this paper, we provide an intelligent agent approach to incorporate human sensibility into an one-to-one recommendation service in cyber shopping mall. Our system exploits human sensibility ergonomics and on-line preference matching technologies to tailor to the customer the suggestion of goods and the description of store catalog. Customizing the system`s behavior requires the parallel execution of several tasks during the interaction （e. g., identifying the customer`s emotional preference and dynamically generating the pages of the store catalog）. The recommendation agent system composed of five modules including specialized agents carries on these tasks. By presenting goods that are consistent with user interests as well as user sensibility, the accuracy and satisfaction of the recommendation service may be improved.

Anthropometric data is a fundamental resource in developing ergonomic products and workplaces. However, designers often experience difficulty in searching anthropometric data relevant to the design due to the technicality of anthropometric terminologies, ambiguity in the description of measurement method for some anthropometric variables, and inefficiency of existing search methods for anthropometric data. The present study suggests a method to develop a classification system of anthropometric variables for systematic, efficient search of anthropometric data. The proposed method first classifies anthropometric variables according to body segment and type of variable, and then arranges anthropometric variables of the same body segment and variable type by comparing the heights of their reference points. The proposed classification method was applied to establish a classification system of 66 anthropometric variables that were selected for an automotive interior design. Then the established anthropometric classification system was utilized to design a search interface of a web-based anthropometric data retrieval system.

Selection of a key dimension (s) by considering the characteristics of hand dimensions is needed to design gloves and construct a sound sizing system for gloves The present study identified key dimensions of glove design by analyzing the relationships between hand dimensions and demonstrated the construction process of a glove sizing system. By conducting correlation and regression analyses on 70 hand dimensions including 3 key dimension candidates (hand length; hand circumference; hand breadth) with the 1988 US Army data, hand length and hand circumference were selected as key dimensions for glove design. Glove sizing systems were constructed for males and females by applying the selected key dimensions, 0.5 inch of sizing intervals, and 2％ of presence rate criterion to the US Army data. This study suggests that glove sizing systems for males and females be very different from each other and a glove sizing system for males include more sizes than that for females.

Icons are the main element of the graphic user interface (GUI). They can help users perform effectively on the computer, especially when the icons reflect user`s mental model. However, few studies in Korea represented Korean users` mental models in icon design. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to ascertain whether existing icons agreement with Korean twentieth mental model, and to deduce properties of Korean twentieth mental model. To do that, 10 icons from two commercially available toolbar-icons of word processing programs were compared with the newly developed icons, which were developed to represent Korean user`s mental modelthrough interviews, surveys, and mental model sketches. The results show that five new metaphors were found: a dog-eared part on the bottom right corner new for new document, a magnifying glass for search, a red pencil for spell-check, `＋` and `` signs in the magnifying glass for zoom, and a yellow post-it for paste. These new icons were preferred to the existing. Korean twentieth users preferred rather complex and dynamic icons than simple and static ones even though icon development guideline said simple icons are better.

Today we are observing a lot of injuries, casualties, and property losses that are mainly caused by the defects of products. In order to derive safety designs, which minimize the possibility of such product liability-related accidents, we need to take into account the user-product interaction as an important part of the danger factor analysis. Existing risk analysis techniques, however, have some limitations in detecting comprehensive danger factors that are peculiarly involved in human errors and the functional defects of products. Researches on danger factor analysis regarding the user-product interaction have been carried out actively in ergonomics. In this paper, we suggest a novel product risk analysis technique, which is more objective and systematic compared to the previous ones, by combining a modified TAFEI (Task Analysis For Error Identification) technique with SASA (Systematic Approach to Accident Scenario Analysis) technique. By applying this technique to the product design practice in industry, corporations will be able to improve the product safety, consequently strengthening the competitiveness.

This study was contrived Hierarchical Information Search (HIS) model. HIS model is based on a “cognitive process” in which model, comprising basic human information processing mechanize and information interaction. Its process include 3 semantic cognitive processes: Schema-Association LTM, Form Domain, and Alternative Selection. Design methodology consists to elicitate memory, thinking and cognitive response variables. In case study, menu structure of mobile phone was applied. In result, a correlation between predictive error rate and real error rate was .892. and a correlation between selective and real reaction time was .697. This present to suggest a model of how the methodology could be applied to real system design effectively when this was used. HIS model could become one of the most important factors for success of product design. In the perspective, the systemic methodology would contribute to design a quantitative and predictive system.

A comprehensive psychophysical scaling system, multiple-modality magnitude estimation system (MMES) has been designed to measure subjective multidimensional human perception. Unlike paper-based magnitude estimation systems, the MMES has an additional auditory peripheral cue that varies with corresponding visual magnitude. As the simplest, purely psychological case, bimodal divided-attention conditions were simulated to establish the superiority of the MMES. Subjects were given brief presentations of pairs of simultaneous stimuli consisting of visual line-lengths and auditory white-noise levels. In the visual or auditory focused-attention conditions, only the line-lengths or the noise levels perceived should be reported respectively. On the other hand, in the divided-attention conditions, both the line-lengths and the noise levels should be reported. There were no significant differences among the different attention conditions. Human performance was better when the proportion of magnitude in stimulus pairs were identically presented. The additional auditory cues in the MMES improved the correlations between the magnitude of stimuli and MMES values in the divided-attention conditions.

This paper reports the results on age and gender of Korean elderly people for the level of difficulty in performing household tasks (meal preparation, grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry), personal tasks (dressing, bathing, grooming), transfer tasks (getting in and out of chairs, getting in and out of bath-tub, using stairs) and management tasks (using telephone, accessing mail, operating door locks). A questionnaire based on the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scale was constructed and administered to 40 Korean elderly subjects aged from 65 to 84(mean age: 74.5, SD: 5.8) in Busan. Additionally, a logistic regression was performed with age (continuous variable) and gender as predictor variables, and reponses to individual questions as the categorical ordinal response variables. To determine appropriate age separation at which difficulty levels in performing activities of daily living change, a discriminant analysis was performed on the responses. All predictor variables were used in the analysis. Accommodating age related changes in functional abilities, and increasing functional independence of elderly people will entail significant design modifications to products, systems and environments for daily use and living.

In this study, we analyzed the old`s characteristics for depth perception in comparison with the young`s as a basic study for universal design in field of products or facilities. Twenty three of the old and twenty two of the young had participated and the depth perception apparatus was used in this experiment. Gender, viewing distance, and age were considered as factors and the differences of depth perception were analyzed for each experimental condition. In the result, a significant difference was not detected on gender, but significant differences were detected on age and viewing distance. That is, we can see that the old is remarkably worse than the young on depth perception task. Therefore, it means that these characteristics have to be absolutely considered in user interface design to improve the old`s accessibility for products or facilities.

A research project was conducted to study work-related musculoskeletal disorders （MSDs） at subway train repair plant in Korea. The project was consisted of 4 main parts; education on the topics of MSDs for all workers, symptom survey, medical check-up, investigation of MSD risk factors. The result of symptom survey showed that 95.2％ of the respondents complained pains on at least one part of the body. After cross-sectional analysis of various information and risk factors, 86.8％ of respondents were considered as active health surveillance level 1 that require continuous monitoring on their symptoms and working conditions. And 57.1％ of the respondents were considered as active health surveillance level 2 that needed medical check-ups for proper medical treatment. The analysis of occupational risk factors revealed that handling of heavy object (46.15％) and repeated awkward postures (46.15％) were two most contributing risk factors for the on-set of MSD at this work site followed by static strain (7.7％), and vibration and impact (3.8％). Medical examination was performed by an industrial medicine MD on 156 workers those considered as active health surveillance level 2. The result showed that 35 workers (20.7％) were considered as MSD patient group at severe level, and 68.6 workers (68.6％) were considered as moderate group and 18 workers (10.6％) were considered minor or normal group those have no symptom.