• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.10-18
• /
• 2011

Ergonomic product design considering users' natural use motion is of importance to improve the usability and satisfaction of a product. A five-step process of product design was developed in the present study by measuring and analyzing users' natural product-use motion with a motion capture system. The developed process was applied to ergonomic design improvement of a half guard installation part of refrigerator; new guard designs (diagonal and arc shape) were developed with the process and evaluated in terms of validity during the development as two measures (task satisfaction and similarity of natural motion). According to the evaluation result, the satisfaction at putting in- and out-task of new guard designs ($6.3{\pm}0.5$ points) was significantly higher than that of existing guard designs ($3.3{\pm}1.0$ points); the difference between natural motion and product-use motion in new guard designs ($1.0{\pm}0.3cm$) was significantly less than that of existing guard designs ($2.0{\pm}0.2cm$). The proposed process of natural motion analysis and product design is applicable to ergonomic product design and evaluation.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.434-445
• /
• 2014

The meaning of this research is to make recognition for necessity of ergonomic fashion design research. And the purpose is to provide the guidelines for ergonomic fashion product development. For this, literature research and analysis of empirical illustration of product design indicating ergonomics characteristic are implemented. Among the body-conscious active sportswear, cycle wear, swim suit, and skin scuba wet suit were selected and analyzed. Then they were explained according to the ergonomics characteristics arranged previously. Lastly, the features of ergonomic fashion design were arranged by composition elements of the clothing such as pattern, sewing, material and detail. The characteristics of ergonomic design derived from literature and advanced researches are efficiency, usability, functionality and safety. Through research and analysis, the characteristics of ergonomic fashion design are as followings. In pattern, it is related to the 3D structure division pattern, the reduction pattern design, the closing & opening part design for easy detachment, the receipt and the changeable design. In sewing, it is related to the use of latest sewing techniques and the finish using silicon or rubber band. In material, it is related to the use of high performance fabrics and the proper arrangement of these. In detail, it is related to the convenient detail, the storage detail, the adjustable detail, and the body protection detail.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.56-67
• /
• 2005

The Processes of a new product design based on ergonomics and customer satisfaction have been studied for years. However, few attempts have been made to systematically include ergonomic design concept to communication service design. Service design can be regarded as a specific type of product design in a way that the processes of product design can also be employed to those of service design. However, a few difficulties may often arise in doing so. First, services have no explicit tangible features, which implies that a customer may not properly appraise contents, quality and functionality of newly designed services with a prototype before launching into market. Second, customer demands on services change more rapidly according to advances in related technology. In the study, we examined earlier studies of product design process and identified that a service design process must alos conform ergonomic methodology, extracting innovative values for creativitybased design and subsequently evaluate its level of customer satisfaction. In this study, we proposed a customer-centered ergonomic design process for communication services. This process includes a hierarchical structure of service requirement identification, customer-centered trend analysis, service scenario development and service evaluation. To prove the practicality of the design process, a case study of communication service design was conducted according to the procedure that follows.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
• /
• 1995.04a
• /
• pp.797-806
• /
• 1995

An ergonomic evaluation model which can properly evaluate the design of a product or workplaces was developed to evaluate a new product in the early stage of design. Although several evaluation models have been developed and are in use in the field of ergonomics, they lack an integrated framework and analysis techniques. In this research, an ergonomic evaluation model was developed according to the framework which accommodates desirable components of the model. The framework represents the integration of four components: man model, workplace modeller, ergonomic evaluation functions and knowledge bases, which interact with a common object-oriented database. Components were developed individually and integrated with the workplace modeller. The generation and manipulation of man models, workplace modelling, and ergonomic evaluation features such as reach and visibility were implemented. The developed evaluation model has demonstrated distinct advantages of the flexibility to adapt another features for the ergonomic evaluation model and the better usability for users.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.51-62
• /
• 2006

The concept of universal design has recently emerged as an important aspect of product design. Universal design is considerably analogous to ergonomic design in a way that it takes the capabilities and limitations of users into consideration during the product development process. However, relatively few studies have been devoted to reflect the practical use of ergonomic principles on universal design. This research attempts to develop a universal design index for mobile phone design to quantify how well a product complies with principles of universal design. The research also emphasizes on ergonomic principles as a basis of evaluation. A generation of the evaluation items was done by cross-checking among the personal, activity and product components. Personal components consist of human characteristics including age, physique, perceptual capacity, life-style, etc. Activity components were derived from those scenarios of mobile phone use while product components were composed of the parts to which a user interacts. Further analysis systematically generated a universal index from relationship matrices among the three components. The index was then used to test its suitability by applying to the evaluation of mobile phones currently on the market. This study demonstrates a development process through which evaluations can be made possible for universal design. The research suggests an improved approach to the appraisal of how well mobile phones are universally designed based on ergonomic principles.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.23-36
• /
• 2000

In conventional ergonomics, consumer product can be made based on anthropometric data and specific design guideline. However, the product may not satisfy consumers because their emotional preference have not been properly considered in design phase. Therefore, in this study a new chair design process was introduced by which both consumer's emotional need and traditional ergonomic requirement can be satisfied. As a part of the process, the traditional Kansei engineering technique was modified to collect quantitative information of consumer's visual appreciation and physical feedback of various types of chairs. Furthermore, we developed an interface, so called, KADAS(Kamsung Analysis and Design Assistance System), for designers to use the technique in chair design. This software can help designers to understand what should be the most suitable shape in designing items such as seat, back and arm rest, etc. to meet the emotional need of consumers. This software displays the result of modified quantification theory I, and explains how to use the statistics. This study suggested a new approach for ergonomic design incorporated with Kansei Engineering technique. This technique can be also applied to other products by extending the database of KADAS.

• IE interfaces
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.85-99
• /
• 1988

High Touch product is characterized by shorter life cycle together with specification/integration of existing function in order to capitalize the rapidly emerging high technology. R & D strategy for a development of High Touch product generally emphasizes two aspects ; Industrial Design (ID) and Ergonomic Design (ED). However, working knowledge on ED of a systematic identification of potential High Touch products is not readily available. The purpose of this study was three-folded : (1) To emphasize the fact that greater efforts should be geared to ED in High Touch design ; (2) To develop an ergonomic approach based on analysis of implicit human needs that identifies potential area of High Touch ; (3) To bubble with new and probable High Touch products in home electronics that actually demonstrate the validity of this study.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.111-115
• /
• 2007

Design equations for anthropometric product design are developed by considering the geometrical relationships of design dimensions and anthropometric dimensions. The present study applied the design structure matrix (DSM) method to the development of design equations for a computer workstation, and compared design values from the design equations with corresponding design values of ergonomic recommendations and existing products. The relationships between design dimensions (e.g., legroom and worktable) were analyzed by a DSM, and then the application order of design equations (e.g., seatpan, backrest, armrest, legroom, and worktable in descending order) was determined. Next, design equations were developed by analyzing the geometric relationships between computer workstation design dimensions and anthropometric dimensions. Finally, design values for a computer workstation were determined by considering a standard posture defined and representative human models (5th, 50th, 95th %ile). The design values calculated using the design equations were similar with those of ergonomic recommendations found in literature and two commercial products measured in the study; however, some design values (e.g., seatpan height) were different due to discrepancy in standard posture. The DSM method would be utilized to systematically analyze the relationships between design dimensions for anthropometric product design.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.203-210
• /
• 2010

For the development of a better product which fits to the target user population, physical workloads such as reach and visibility are evaluated using digital human simulation in the early stage of product development; however, ergonomic workload assessment mainly relies on visual observation of reach envelopes and view cones generated in a 3D graphic environment. The present study developed a quantitative assessment method of physical workload in a digital environment and applied to the evaluation of a Korean utility helicopter (KUH) cockpit design. The proposed assessment method quantified physical workloads for the target user population by applying a 3-step process and identified design features requiring improvement based on the quantified workload evaluation. The scores of physical workloads were quantified in terms of posture, reach, visibility, and clearance, and 5-point scales were defined for the evaluation measures by referring to existing studies. The postures of digital humanoids for a given task were estimated to have the minimal score of postural workload by finding all feasible postures that satisfy task constraints such as a contact between the tip of the index finger and a target point. The proposed assessment method was applied to evaluate the KUH cockpit design in the preliminary design stage and identified design features requiring improvement. The proposed assessment method can be utilized to ergonomic evaluation of product designs using digital human simulation.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 1993

Today, rapid development and timeliness of introducing a new product be- comes a more influencing factor of determing its competitive power due to a shortened product cycle, while rapid improvement of manufacturing technology makes product design and manufacturing fuse together. This implies that prod- uct usability evaluation and improvement starts right from its design phase, resulting in less development time and cost. To make this possible, proper as- sessment of human reach is one of essential functions for ergonomic product us- ability evaluation, specifically in the platform of computer-aided ergonomic evaluation models or any CAD system with a built-in man model. In this study, an analytic reach prediction algorithm ensuring the posture that human naturally takes, is presented by employing the methods developed for robot kinematics. Among robot kinematic methods for solving the multi-link system, the resolved motion method was found to be effective to solve human reach as a redundant manipulator model. Also, the joint range availability was used as a performance fonction to guarantee human naturalness. The result is expected to be directly applicable to product usability evaluations.