Advances in Ergonomics Modeling, Usability & Special Populations

Musculoskeletal issues are a common problem in work life. Mental issues are rising. Employees are often not aware of the ergonomic aspects of their work, not knowing when a certain action they perform is ergonomically unhealthy. A possibility to prevent that is to assess ergonomic parameters during work and give feedback, so that the employees can learn and improve. Common systems for ergonomic assessments are often only snapshots and give no direct feedback. Therefore, this paper presents the user centered design process (UCDP) of a real-time feedback solution for ergonomic parameters that gives employees direct feedback by using the built in sensors of everyday-life technology like smartphones, smartwatches and activity trackers to monitor different parameters of ergonomics at work and show possible improvements. A corresponding App was developed as digital interactive prototype. The UCDP thereby featured several iterations with user studies and expert evaluations to ensure high user friendliness.

User experience (UX) is a concept that represents the psychological values regarding products. UX can be categorized into two types: one that a user has experienced (experienced UX) and another that a user has not experienced (inexperienced UX). In this study, we gathered experienced UX data and established a method to apply this data to next-generation product ideas. Additionally, an application was developed to gather inexperienced UX data and apply this data to the product design process. The goal was to establish a method to generate ideas for next-generation products in anticipation of the medium- and long-term future.

This paper mainly studies the bottom somatotype characteristics and differences of the young female in the southern and northern regions of China. During the experiment, we selected the young female aging from 20 to 29 years old as the research object. In order to ensure the accuracy of the data in the experimental process, garment-specialty students are required to take the measurements of body parts including height, abdomen, waist, hip, leg length, thigh, shank and ankle girth. During the investigation, we have collected 102 young women’s lower-body figure data. Half of the measured young female are from Liaoning province in northern China, while the other half are from Guangdong Province in southern China. Based on the SPSS statistical software, the bottom somatotype characteristics and differences of the young female in two regions were statistically described. In the study of this paper, the difference between the hip and the waist is the main basis for the study of features and differences of the body size. This study can not only provide some reference for bottom somatotype garment size of the young female in the north and the South respectively, but also the certain data support for detailed classification of garment size.

Limited research was found related to the study of back forces on chairs sat on by people who weighed over 136 kg. The Business Institutional Furniture Manufactures Association needs force data for development of performance test standards to test chairs for users who weigh up to 181 kg. 20 participants who weighed from 136 to 186 kg completed six tasks on an instrumented chair in the sequence of sitting down, remaining seated, and rising. Effects of sitting motion, armrest use, and seat cushion thickness on back forces and centre-of-force were investigated. Results indicated hard sitting down yielded the highest back force of 34.7 % in terms of participants’ body weights. Armrest use and cushion thickness affected back forces of normal sitting down, but not of rising, hard sitting down, and remaining seated.

This paper investigates the nature of user participation in the process of designing fighter aircraft cockpits. The role of the users, i.e. pilots, in the design of cockpit interfaces is explored. We present the results of an on-line questionnaire with twelve designers of cockpit interfaces for fighter aircraft. The results show that the designers have highlighted the need for more opportunities to observe the pilots, and they wish to obtain more information and ideas from them. Moreover, a larger involvement from users as examiners and testers in the evaluation process was desirable. Access to users was considered unproblematic and the risk of misunderstandings was reported to be low. Moreover, the designers did not support the idea that users should design or take design decisions.

The teaching of ergonomic design of packages requires an experience of prototype development that can be evaluated and compared with similar commercially available products. This study was aimed to report an experience of development and evaluation of consumable product packages in a teaching context of ergonomic design. Videos were recorded to assess the perceived usability of packages and prototypes. It was applied SUS and SD protocols to evaluate the products. The teaching experience in assessing consumer products packaging, the use of assessment parameters in the design of new packages and the development of prototypes that meet aesthetic, functional and especially ergonomic requirements, were expressively positive to the comprehension of the process by the actors (students) involved.

Nine different consumable products were evaluated: two packaging that already existed in the market; and nine prototypes developed as alternatives to those existing packaging. An SD protocol was applied with ten pairs of antagonistic adjectives; and a SUS protocol, with ten sentences for such products. Videos that showed the use process of each package and prototype were recorded. After watching the videos, participants answered the SD and SUS protocols. Results showed that the evaluation technique by SD and SUS, through videos, proved to be relevant. The prototypes that met aesthetic and functional requirements, and sought to minimize ergonomic issues, obtained expressive positive evaluations in both the SD and SUS protocols.

The integration of User Centered Design (UCD) and agile methodologies for software development is suitable to achieve software products with higher degree of usability. However there are few controlled experiments that can show the advantages and the approach of this integration. The present paper describes the whole process of integrate one of the popular agile methodologies, Extreme Programming (XP), with UCD applied to the construction of a software application. The project deals with a mobile application about the vegetation from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú that allows users to search, recognize and find plants around the university campus.

Worldwide use of social networking sites (SNSs) continues to dramatically increase. People are spending unexpected and unprecedented amounts of time online. However, many studies have warned about the negative consequences of excessive SNS usage, including the potential of addictive behavior. Therefore, detecting the symptoms of excessive SNS usage is necessary. Data collection is an important first step for analyzing the usage behavior of SNSs. This article describes the development of a data collection application. We employed questionnaires to gather user experiences of SNS and APIs to retrieve SNS data by focusing on Twitter and Facebook. Unfortunately, these methods are limited. Self-report data might be inaccurate. Also, some data on SNSs might not be collectable by APIs. Thus, we will collect more data from internet service providers (ISPs). The obtained data from our application will be applied to detect the symptoms of excessive use of SNSs and develop prevention strategies.

The analysis of users and their needs is one of the most important and most difficult aspects in software development. There have been many suggestions and usability engineering procedures published that are meant to clarify and consider the target users for a software product. However, all of these methods are weak in supporting the whole process of user analysis, and along the development process chain, the project team faces many problems. With our Usability Engineering Repository UsER we want to foster the practical use of a broad spectrum of usability engineering methods using a flexible approach of modular tools that are easy to handle. By explicit integration of user analysis results in all project phases we aim for continuous focus on user needs.

Nowadays, a satisfying user experience is the goal of any user-centered design activity and the key to success for any technical device. User experience (UX) is a holistic concept that emphasizes the importance of subjective appraisals, feelings and motivational tendencies before, during and after interacting with a technical product. It includes numerous aspects, such as usability, aesthetics, social communication of personal values, emotional stimulation and motivational support for using and reusing the product. Based on a comprehensive framework of UX, the Components model of User Experience (CUE) by Thüring and Mahlke (Int J Psychol 42:253–264, 2007, [1]), a new questionnaire for a standardized measurement of UX was developed, the meCUE questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of four separately validated modules which refer to instrumental and non-instrumental product perceptions, user emotions, consequences of usage, and an overall judgment of attractiveness. The construction of the questionnaire was based on two online data collections, in which n = 238 subjects participated respectively. Two laboratory experiments and a further online survey were conducted for determining the reliability and the validity of the questionnaire. Results support the assumption that both, the internal consistency of the constructed scales as well as their discriminative, criterion-related and construct validity are highly acceptable. Therefore, meCUE is a valuable and economic instrument for measuring key aspects of UX providing a promising alternative to existing questionnaires.

Spatial orientation is a challenging task for the astronauts living inside the spacecraft that has complicated structure. To have a better understanding of the spatial orientation task inside the multi-module space station, it is necessary to find a general method to describe the orientation tasks. In this study, we proposed a hierarchical model called “LOCS” to illustrate the different types of orientation tasks. We validated the effect of this model by an experiment in the simulated multi-module space station developed by virtual reality. This model made the spatial orientation process clearer and provided a basic framework to study the related issues of orientation in the space station in the future.

Aim of the present research is the introduction of a self-assessment instrument fostering the user-centered development and evaluation of human machine interfaces during ramp-ups of socio-cyber-physical production systems. This objective is addressed by first outlining the concept of socio-cyber-physical production systems and their specific design restrictions. Then existing user-centered design approaches are analyzed and guiding questions from a user-centered perspective are deduced. The questions are structured under consideration of the agile framework scrum. Applicability of the instrument is tested by conducting a self-assessment with “oculavis”, a software environment for smart glasses and other wearable technologies. Results show that the integration of agile and user-centered development remains a challenge in practice and seems to be approached more intuitively than methodical.

Laboratory website is one of the main supporting facility in teaching and learning activities in a university. It contains information about laboratory works and events. Industrial Engineering program of Universitas Islam Indonesia currently have 11 educational websites which are accessed by students in daily routine. Innovation and Organization Development (IOD) is one laboratory that already implemented website technology to support its educational activity. Our preliminary study showed that website from IOD laboratory has the most interface problem compared to the other ones. This study aim to redesign the laboratory website using user centered design method based on three usability aspects that consist of effectivity, efficiency, and personal satisfactory. This study involved 30 participants which are categorized into three different level of experience in using the website, they are expert, intermediate, and beginners. Usability problem was identified using think-aloud evaluation method while those participants worked on representative task. Usability problems found on the website including font size that too small, not included university logo as an identity, not integrated to other laboratory websites, and used unattractive color and background. According to usability problem identification, the average of participant’s task completion rate is about 99.4 %, the obstacle was on finding business news and laboratory achievement task. Based on those results, then we redesigned the website using user centered design method that consists of 4 steps including analysis, synthesis using WEBUSE questionnaire, simulation, and evaluation. The results indicated that the usability level identified by WEBUSE questionnaire and usability problem found by interview can be used guideline to redesign website interface when using user-centered design method.

Open source mass transit trip planning applications provide real-time transit information for a local community. The application provides local users with an inexpensive and accurate way to predict when their bus will arrive at the bus stop. Researchers and instructors have used the One Bus Away application as an opportunity to form cross-disciplinary development teams similar to the ones that students will experience in professional development environments. The study shares the lessons learned, the guidelines developed, and the best practices for designing transit trip planning interfaces during two implementations. User testing revealed that online mapping applications must support both riders who are familiar with the city (i.e., resident riders), as well as riders who are only visiting (i.e., visiting riders). In both cases, riders must rapidly understand the interface icons and metaphors during significant cognitive stress, environmental stress, and anxiety about missing their bus.

In order to develop a visual attention model for quantifying effects of object size, we made a hypothesis that the visual attention by object size of rectangle can be quantified by the width and height of object. To verify the hypothesis, we carried out an experiment with 18 participants. As a result of the experiment, we found that width, height, and interaction between them are effective factors for quantifying the visual attention by object size. From the comparison of estimation accuracy with the existing model based on pixel level position, we found that the proposed model based on the width and height of object has an equivalent estimation accuracy to the existing model. We concluded therefore that the visual attention by object size of a rectangle can be quantified by the width and height of object.

The Philippines, being a tropical country, is a main producer of several agricultural products. With the increasing trend on the use of the internet in businesses, an online farming investment scheme has been recently introduced in the country. The crowdfunding website allows potential investors to select the crops they wanted to invest on. Upon confirmation of investment, farmers plant the investors’ selected crops. The profit after the sales of products is shared among the investors and farmers at the agreed terms. This research study would like to test the usability of the website to increase usability in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The study would like to explore the website’s problematic areas and their implication on the potential investors’ behavior. Preliminary analysis suggests that the current website interface appearance may have affected the integrity of website. Moreover, the timeliness of the responses significantly affects customer satisfaction and the overall usability of the website.

The importance of wearable equipment in certain profession for the purpose of safety and communication cannot be overemphasized. However, the number, size and positons of these equipment raise questions concerning ergonomics and human factors. This study examines the effect of the police body camera in conjunction with the walkie-talkie speaker on the ergonomics of an active duty police officer. Two additional alternatives to the current set up were provided. Result showed a significant effect of position on task performance and workload. The research should give insights to other wearable equipment.

Multifunctioning systems are being extensively used in households these days. System information is summarized on a portable terminal. Users benefit from the value produced by multifunctional systems. Therefore, it is conceivable that the motivation to use such systems can increase or decrease depending upon the balance between the amount of information on the terminal screen and the amount of system information. Additionally, the elderly are assumed as next-generation users. Thus, in this study, from the viewpoint of motivating the elderly, we explore the relationship between the amount of information on the terminal screen and the amount of system information. As an experiment, we create a smartphone application that can control the amount of information, and the participants performed a task in which varying amounts of information were combined. As a result, a relationship between the amount of information on the terminal screen and the amount of system information was found.

This paper describes a methodological human centered approach during handgun design. For evaluation of reach distances to handgun controls (trigger, slide stop, magazine catch) a digital human models and ergonomic software were used. With these digital human models a variety of minimal, maximal and average reach distance for Americans, Europeans and Asians were proposed. Distances for American and European population were used for creation of a handgun functional sample. Test shooting performed with this functional sample was evaluated by a questionnaire which was filled by 18 male members of armed forces. These responses evaluated the suitability of functional sample and identified specific parameters for future improvement.

The aim of this paper is to disclose the new research developments and the results from the systematization of experience and user interaction with the Inspædia (a new web knowledge “Agora”), to inspire a dynamic, collaborative, and interactive intelligence among the inspædiers. We will explain in detail and describe the design process and discuss the ultimate design interaction concept and development regarding (almost everything about) simplicity and playfulness of the inspædiers’ experience to transform relevant information (related > meanfull > useful) in productive knowledge (inspiration > insight > foresight) in a very easy and quick way (usability: learnability; understandability; operability; attractiveness…), with a smile in the face (satisfaction) and a wow in the mind (or in the soul).

The paper describes the human-computer interaction principles for each of the teams participating in computer-aided simulation exercises for the State Sanitary Inspection. The exercises relate to activities undertaken during the crisis connected with a large outbreak of food poisoning or food-borne disease. The GUI design and ergonomics for the Training Audience as well as the Exercise Planning Team, the Exercise Control, the Exercise Director and the Evaluation and Analysis Team were considered to immerse the training audience in an as much as realistic environment.

We report two experiments that investigated the impact of reduced visual updating speed on users’ motor performance in a Fitts’-law task. The update rate of visual feedback was set between 10 and 30 Hz. In Experiment 1, the trials were blocked by update rate, allowing participants to get adapted to the reduced visual feedback. In Experiment 2, all trials of different update rates were intermixed and presented in random order. Both experiments found that movement time increased with decreasing update rate. Regression analyses revealed that the Fitts’-law model could be extended to accommodate the findings by including a multiplicative component of frame interval (reciprocal of update rate). The participants’ subjective experience reduced rapidly when the update rate was lower than 20 Hz, and the rating data could be modelled using movement time. The results were discussed in the context of implications for developing VR/AR applications.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of delayed visual feedback on users’ motor performance and subject experience. In a Fitt’s-law target acquisition task, participants moved a cursor from a home location to a spherical target with delayed visual feedback. The experimental trials were blocked by latency (Experiment 1) to allow participants to get adapted to a constant delay or tested in random order (Experiment 2). Both experiments found significant impact of delay on motor performance, and the larger the Index of Difficulty of movement, the greater the performance detriment. A modified Fitts’-law model described the results very well with an additional multiplicative component of latency. Participants’ ratings of subjective experience with different latencies could be well-predicted from their motor performance. Between-experiments comparisons further revealed the effects of sensorimotor adaptation to constant delays. The results provide guidance to the design of VR/AR/tele-operative applications.

ICT have been moving rapidly into people’s lives nowadays. Even if living without access to ICT would be a barrier in the past, today access to ICT is required for most education, employment, and commerce, and is increasingly required for travel, health, safety, daily living and participation in most of our society. In this paper we present how the needs and preferences of the users are reflected and covered by the ICT interfaces they use.

Human exposure to uncomfortable temperatures has been of concern in the last decade, since in these conditions the frequency of occupational accidents and diseases increases in most cases. This study discusses and determines the aspects of usability and ergonomics related to thermal comfort; and the role of clothing as a protective agent against the risks caused by thermal discomfort at low temperatures in workers of a typical Brazilian Refrigerator of beef industry. For this, there were interviewed all industry workers affected in the refrigerator, and were analyzed the results through computer software. The result will show the characterization of the real workers’ situation in a typical Brazilian refrigerator, relating to thermal comfort, bringing ergonomics clothing as a principal issue to be analyzed. Consequently, there were observed aspects such as comfort, usability and efficiency to demonstrate the consequences generated in the health and well-being of workers exposed to cold.

Health and individual’s wellbeing is influenced by a range of factors such as social, cultural, economic, psychological and environmental. For instance, people spend approximately 8 h per day at work, where they are exposed to multiple stressors that have a negative impact on their health. This increases the risk of disease, especially for those who present low levels of physical activity per day. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of new generation of advanced ‘smart’ material on body balance at work. Studying the body upright position and balancing by utilization of technological mats helps professionals in their daily life through decreasing muscular problems, especially fatigue. This is due to the increased frequency and repetition of movements that are performed by professionals over extended periods of time. Another objective of this study is to validate model prototypes that improve ergonomics at work, as well as optimize users’ comfort; a new anti-fatigue mats by Notrax®. A total of 25 professionals from different age groups participated in the study which took place for a period of six months. A dysfunction in balance was observed in professionals who didn’t use mats. Dysfunction in balance can cause pathologies, strain and fatigue therefore disorders due repetitiveness. Additionally, a significant increase of balance was observed for those who used the mats in comparison of those without mats (p < 0.05). Significant variations were also observed between the different mats and their specifications (p < 0.05). Utilization of mats helps professionals on their daily life by decreasing joint stresses and optimizing body balance.

This study aims to elicit individuals’ perceived quality of use for the battery swap station (BSS). An experiment was conducted with a sample of 92 participants who had experienced a battery swapping service, operation procedure, and filled out a usability evaluation questionnaire for eliciting their agreement of learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. The results showed that the average operation time was approximately 2.32 min. 33 errors had been made by the 92 participants. Also, most of participants agreed with the quality of use for the proposed BSS, especially for the learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction. However, memorability and errors were important issues to be improved for the proposed BSS and should be investigated further.

In order to improve penetration in Taiwan’s electric two wheeler (E2W) market to decrease emissions of pollutants generated by scooters, a battery swapping model is proposed to overcome battery limitations. This study aims to understand individuals’ willingness to accept the battery swapping system. Event marketing was used to recruit target audiences, resulting in a sample of 1422 riders who had experienced a battery swapping service and filled out a post-experience questionnaire for eliciting their traffic demands, the system acceptability, and purchase intention. The results showed that approximately 90 % of riders adopted such system, but only 6.2 % were willing to purchase an e-scooter. Thus, there is a high degree of system adoption, but having E2Ws adopted in the short term is a challenge. Riders identified a number of problems with the self-service battery swap stations (BSS). These problems are discussed and related recommendations of resolving such problems are addressed.

For many years, work in the area of accessibility was focusing on making a product accessible or the internet experience accessible for people with disabilities. Currently, a paradigm shift is happening within the EU project Prosperity4All (http://www.prosperity4all.eu/), bringing together developers and users in order to make every ICT experience personalized and customized. A priori a set of value propositions for developers were set. These value propositions were initially tested during an-hour session with developers. A semi-structured questionnaire with 45 items was used, addressing the infrastructure’s value for their work and progress. Developers were interested to learn from other experts and share documentation but they were more interested to learn directly from end-users by establishing frequent communication. They strongly believe this is the cornerstone of customized solutions and technologies should support and cover this need on demand. Re-usability of knowledge was the most important cost-efficient value.

The use of questionnaires is an efficient and inexpensive method to measure user experience. Existing user-experience questionnaires developed based on Western populations and cultures. Given that cultural differences can influence judgments and the experience of products, questionnaires on user experiences based on Western cultures are not necessarily universal. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a Taiwanese User-Experience Questionnaire (TUEQ) with semantic differential techniques to understand the experience of Taiwanese users in relation to interactive digital products. A 23-item TUEQ was constructed in this study. The TUEQ identifies four main dimensions contributing to the experience of Taiwanese users: pragmatic quality, general hedonic quality, contemporary hedonic quality, and unique hedonic quality. The practical implications of the TUEQ and further study needed for a satisfactory level of reliability and construct validity are discussed.

This study examined gesture preferences for a vertical or horizontally-oriented multi-touch input device. Gesture interfaces have become prevalent, increasing the need to characterize technology expectations. The current study expanded previous work (Morris in Proceedings of graphics interface, 2010), which identified preference of a gesture for a given command. Forty employees from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic participated. Twenty-one participants were tested with a vertical multi-touch device while 19 were tested with a horizontal multi-touch device. For a subset of commands (duplicate, enlarge, rotate), orientation was a factor in gesture preference. A subset of gestures was preferred with a vertical orientation and another subset preferred with a horizontal orientation. Users indicated that gestures were relatively easier in the vertical orientation compared to horizontal. Orientation should be considered when designing command gestures for multi-touch devices. Potential applications of this research include design of gesture commands for future multi-touch systems.

Due to the mismatch between the human body dimension and the refrigerator’s structure, many household refrigerators’ volumes don’t get fully utilized. Using the ergonomic design principle-based approach, 6 model machines of 6 brands purchased from household appliance markets at random were evaluated in separating sides, which were the Available Volume base on the normal reach zone and Easy-to-Use Volume base on the comfortable reach zone. This evaluation aims to promote the available and easy-to-use volume of household refrigerators by ergonomic design approach.

Understanding variation is a crucial aspect of managing and improving any manufacturing or product development process. This paper investigates sources of variations in process control. It shows main sources of variability such as actual process variations or measurement variations. Moreover, it attempt to classify causes of variation. Based on state-of-the-art research methods, researchers are able to investigate variability and develop a process to minimize the negative impact of variability on processes. In particular attention is the role of human factors and its diverse impact on process control.

In order to study the range of comfort environment parameters, subjective assessment and objective assessment are used in this research. The main purpose of this study is to determine the temperature and humidity range, acceptable temperature fluctuation, acceptable air flow rate and acceptable vertical air temperature difference under the thermal comfort environment in summer and winter. The thermal comfort environment should make the PMV between −0.5 and +0.5 which is recommended by international standard ISO7730. Following this principle, the comfort temperature ranges in summer and winter are determined respectively, comfort temperature range is 25–28 °C in summer and 22–25 °C in winter. Under the thermal comfort environment condition, the biggest acceptable temperature fluctuation is obtained and is 0.6 °C and the biggest acceptable air flow rate is 0.5 m/s in summer. In winter, if the vertical air temperature difference is higher than 3.2 °C, the subjects feel comfortable.

Majority of the conducted studies about public elementary classrooms in the Philippines focuses on anthropometrics but research about the physical environmental factors that affect learning is lacking. With this, an ergonomic assessment of four public elementary schools in Quezon City, Philippines was conducted to determine if the facilities are able to meet the recommended thermal, acoustical, and lighting ergonomic standards for classrooms and assess if the facilities are conducive environments for learning. Acoustic, thermal, and lighting measurements were collected from four different locations inside each classroom. Simultaneously, a survey of students was conducted to determine their perception of the conditions of their classroom in terms of thermal, visual and acoustical comfort. The results were compared to the general ergonomic standards for classrooms and showed that the environmental conditions of the public elementary school classrooms considered are not conducive for learning based on the thermal, acoustical, and lighting standards.

This article explains the concepts of city and urban practices—phenomena of urban activity—that directly influence the deployment of street furniture and, above all, the importance given to them by the population, with regard to its true functions, identity, meaning (symbology), uses and appropriations. It is vitally important for the study also understand the urban furniture relation to the design of cities, is to complement the public space, is the way interferes with the urban landscape. You have to understand how society is shown in front of herself and the world itself that surrounds it, and what are the devices that make city living when connect—through uses and customs—as this is the vital forces of individuals and community space practices created by the tactics of the inhabitants to allow its ambiance, wellness, safety and comfort, sensations often perceived by the set of elements that constitute the urban furniture of cities.

People that have lived their childhood with a normal vision and in the adult age became blind don’t find too much help in the industry of apparel. Once they knew colors and mind about what they’re matching, it’s an everyday challenge choosing what to wear so that they won’t suffer prejudice at first sight of people able to see. Besides being a matter of fashion or good looking, separate which colors to put together inside the washing machine is also needed, so that garments keep their original appearance. Learning braille is an option, but it’s not that simple for an adult—once literacy is an ability easier when done at the first years of childhood—and sensibility at fingertips is hard in many cases (mainly if blindness comes from diabetes), when talking about the small points that compose that language. This paper suggests a new way to help these persons with the quotidian task of choosing the colors of their clothes, using additive manufacturing to print cheap labels that can be recognized for those who learned to read the conventional alphabet and were used to write when they could see everything. Instead of trying to oblige fashion industry to include, it’s a proposal to aid blind adults to help themselves. The study also suggests a design methodology approach applied to products manufactured by tridimensional printing, able to add virtual simulation and prototyping side by side with evaluation by people with special needs.

The use of crutches is mainly related to healing processes after injuries or/and surgery of lower limbs. The design of the handle grips may influence the pressure distribution on the palm of the hand and it can influence the perception of discomfort. This study was aimed to verify whether different handle grip diameters influence the pressure distribution in the palm of the hand, as well as the perception of discomfort in the use of axillary crutches. It was used the Grip System Versatek (Tekscan Ink) and a Hand Map protocol to evaluate those variables. Results showed that each region of the palm of the hand was affected differently by each handle grip. There was no pattern for the distribution of pressure and the region with the highest number of occurrences of discomfort did not always attribute the highest degree of perceived discomfort by the subjects.

In Brazil, the rate of people with disabilities resulting from amputation is relevant. The distribution of high-tech prostheses only meets a small portion of the population. On the other hand it is known that most of the industrialized products design in the world are developed to users considered “normal”. This study proposed, through guidance to a group of technical students, the design and development of a low-cost prosthesis to an individual with disarticulation of the left wrist, seeking to provide opportunities for the subject to conduct a vegetation cutting activity with a gasoline brush cutter. Based on the knowledge assimilated during the technical course in mechanics, the group of students explored new possibilities of alternative materials and processes in the search for an affordable solution. The project resulted in a prosthesis that attends the anatomical, mechanical and functional needs required by the individual X product interface.

This article is a case study on the National Catalogue of Assistive Technology developed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, along with the Institute of Social Technology (ITS Brazil). The available services provided by the catalog are covered by the assistive technologies, citing some references about such technologies. A survey was conducted with thirteen people with physical, visual or auditory, who answered a form with seven questions in order to know if these users know the book or have purchased a product via the platform.

The inclusion of children with physical disabilities is difficult by the prejudice of society and the inability to move around on their own. For these locomotion is possible, it is necessary to use devices that assist in their autonomy. An alternative Assistive Technology that provides the march to the handicapped child is a walker. The walkers models found on the market are designed to meet most of the physical, generalizing them; This makes in some cases, unsuitable or little effect. The purpose of this study consists of a mechanical walker project to assist in the motor development of the lower limbs of a child with cerebral palsy diplegia type, providing her well-being and security. For this, the most important functions of some existing models on the market and related to key customer needs were surveyed through a case study. From this information and improvements identified during the development of this study, it was developed and tested functional device prototype that met the expected purpose, validated by a special child with the problem described.

Visually impaired (VI) and blind users use accessibility features like type-to-speech software or Zoom Text, to navigate the internet. Accessibility features do not compensate for fundamental browsing experiences of understanding visual and informational hierarchy, skipping around, or skimming sections, leading to cognitive burden on the user. Despite growing interest in accessibility research, many websites are difficult for blind and VI users to navigate. With number of students in universities increasing, key processes, such as registration, have become web-based. Over 500,000 blind and VI students are enrolled in universities so it’s imperative that they be able to register for classes efficiently and independently. The goal of this study is to improve the experience of adding, dropping, and changing grading format of classes, for blind and VI users. The new design will be tested against the existing one for usability, accessibility, and ease of use.

Profound social reciprocity deficits are a core feature of the autism spectrum disorders. Children with autism often lack appropriate social skills when they need to interact with other people. A social stories training is one type of children-specific intervention for teaching social skills. It helps learn social skills through combination of visual and verbal cues. We use augmented reality (AR) technologies to visually conceptualize the social stories. Interactive social stories are played using several tangible markers and AR technologies that overlays the markers with corresponding virtual images. The new way to interpret social stories demonstrates an improvement of attraction and enhances effects of social skills training. Finally, We have a prototype for the social skill—“greeting” and an initial pilot study to support the therapy of high-functioning autism children.

This paper aims to develop an appropriate game interface design for frozen shoulder rehabilitation. The main treatment of frozen shoulder involves diagnose of doctor and proper rehabilitative exercise to break up adhesion and improve the joint mobility and functions. It leads to a problem that whether to do the exercise after the treatments of doctor is all depends on the patient’s motivation and often not execute. To address this, we construct an app game design which can be easily used by mobile platforms in order to enhance the motivations of patients to keep doing regular rehabilitation at home and the results can be uploaded into server for screening by doctor. The prototyping of this game design are conducted and several users are invited into the evaluation process to revise the game design.

The purpose of the study is to develop quantitative usability Evaluation criteria of movement support service robot for elderly people. To develop the usability testing criteria of a movement support service robot for elderly people, this study carried out the followings: product selection, selection of target product, IRB passing, development of leading indicators, correction by experts, preliminary evaluation according to the scenario and development of core indicators. For this, a draft questionnaire was developed against the elderly at around age 60. After small group tests and interviews, the experts modified the initial draft to the Usability evaluation Criteria of movement support service robot for elderly people. Development indicators include 4 subscales—Safety, Controllability, Efficiency and Satisfaction. All of the 4 subscales of indicators were passed the reliability criteria by 4 groups of elderly people, divided by gender and the familiarity of smart move devices. Development indicators cover a wider area of user experiences of the movement support service robot and are a good measurement tool to help both the users and developers of the service robot for elderly people.

The accessibility support absence in the design of web sites is related to insufficient training of developers, project budget constraints, and the lack of techniques to support development activities that take into account accessibility. This paper presents a component framework developed from the viewpoint of accessibility, based on an interaction pattern language and on an accessibility guideline targeted to complete vision loss. An additional contribution is the development of a components development process that meets accessibility requirements, based on interaction patterns, using a process for the components specification and the usability engineering lifecycle elements.

Even though some studies have confirmed that visually impaired people have superior tactile sensation abilities, few systems based on these advantages have exploited. In this study, we developed and evaluated an interactive system that utilizes the superior abilities of the visually impaired to increase their enjoyment in a video game application. We employed the TECHTILE toolkit as a device to output tactile sensations and developed an interactive system with several types of tactile sensations. We created a system that has 3D content and a story using Unity and experimentally evaluated it.

In this paper, the authors show the results of an anecdotic experiment about the effect the use of eyeglasses has on the body posture of people in seated positions using different kinds of electronic devices: a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet and a smartphone. The tasks were performed using a fully reconfigurable seating buck on which a standard VDT (Video Display Terminal) workplace with a chair was set. Subjects performed different tasks in order to evaluate the subjective perception of postural comfort. A Digital Human Modeling system was used to model and evaluate, from an ergonomic point of view, the ergonomic level. Software CaMAN®, was used to perform an objective evaluation of the postural comfort of subjects’ upper limbs and to compare the results obtained for the different subjects. The results show that the use of glasses has a significant effect on the body postures of the subjects.

Currently, sports activities are considered occupational activities. Cyclists are vulnerable to develop musculoskeletal injuries related to overuse. A static-cycling instructor can teach professional cycling from 3 to 4 h a day. Constantly, they suffer discomfort and pain in the back. The purpose of this work is to develop a protocol to monitor the temperature of the skin at the back of static-cycling practitioners. The study was conducted by monitoring the temperature of the skin in the back, using infrared thermography. Three men and three women participated practicing static-cycling, the first thermal image was taken at rest, and then thermal images were taken every 15 min. The experimental work was carried out using two different types of bicycles. The data obtained in this study may be useful for the design of new products that enhance comfort in cyclists in order to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injuries.

The continuous positive-pressure ventilation and the pressure suit are the most commonly performed to protect pilot from hypoxia in high altitude flights, which may affect both pilots’ respiratory and cardiovascular system. Nevertheless, most studies did not discuss the influence of respiratory system. To investigate the physiological response of high-flight protection when respiratory system and cardiovascular system are both considered, the couple of respiratory mechanics model and multi-unit lumped parameter cardiovascular system model was established. The numerical simulation results demonstrated the significant changes in human respiratory and circulation systems under different protection levels, and the intrapleural pressure increase significantly with the increase of ventilation pressure. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) increase linearly and the cardiac output (CO) decrease with the increase protection level. The model is validated with experimental data on the ground.

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) have great potential to provide visually impaired (VI) students with educational software that is both accessible and appealing. To ensure the usability of such software, the special needs of the target users should be considered throughout its design; hence, a user centered design (UCD) approach is required. The aim of this study was to conduct user research to elicit requirements for an assistive TUI-based educational software solution for VI students in Saudi Arabia. The local education context was explored through field observations and semi-structured interviews with special education teachers at an inclusive public elementary school that offered special education classes for VI students. Findings from the study have revealed that tangibles are an indispensable part of current teaching practices, established the teachers’ willingness to use TUI-based software solutions and uncovered a need for a fun and engaging software for VI students to practice and grasp mathematical concepts.

Due to a new focus on holistic design and the development of new control devices in cars not only optical features but also haptic and acoustic factors are becoming more important. However, it is necessary to clarify if haptics, acoustics and backlights of controls (optics) are independent factors and can thus be developed separately or if there are interactions between the perceptions of those three modalities. Thus, two independent studies were conducted. The first study investigated the interaction between haptics, acoustics and backlights of controls. Since backlight is not always present while a vehicle is being driven (e.g. insolation during daytime), a second study with a more detailed variation of acoustic and haptic parameters was conducted, omitting optics as a factor.

When developing new interface features, it is vital to consider the perspectives of users from several backgrounds throughout the process, in order to ensure features that address realistic user concerns in effective ways. The Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) and an established user acceptance questionnaire were used to evaluate the predicted usability and acceptability of four enhanced interface features for unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) operation. The targeted interface is designed for use in real-world and simulated environments. Although the SHERPA results alone did not clearly distinguish between interface enhancements, the user acceptance results from team members converged on a single ‘best’ interface enhancement for supporting collision avoidance and navigation, based on assessments using early mock-ups in a simulated environment.

In many products, the visual impressions of the product are extremely important components—sight accounts for 83 % of the five senses (An education apparatus editing committee in An industrial education apparatus system manual. JUS Press 1972). However, manufacturers still depend on the aspect of the effectiveness, efficiency, and usability for the design evaluation of products; yet, consumer emotion is hard to measure because the mental side of users such as visual impressions cannot be observed directly and the index to measure them has not been established. The function, performance, and usability can be measured by the behavioral index of users (e.g., operation time and error rate) (Nagashima and Kubo in The sensitivity and information for the new manufacturing. Morikita Shuppan Co., Ltd, 2007). In this study, we experimentally searched for indices to objectively detect the impression of appearance with car images as targets. We observed that MPFC activation is related to high “familiarity” and low “mechanical” features.

Consumers expect mature products such as cars to provide value in addition to conventional features such as safety and usability. Hence, introducing methods to evaluate consumer perceptions of the worth of new features during the design process benefits manufacturers. Consequently, increasing attention has been recently focused on user experience (UX). This project examined three aspects of UX, namely, the “desire to try using” during an encounter, the “goodness of using,” and the “desire to continue to use” after the initial usage. Then, a method for introducing these aspects into the product design process was developed. Thus, the factors that influence user desire to continue the product usage were obtained. The relation between the user requirements and the design elements was examined, and a method that quantitatively evaluates user desires based on the design elements during the design process was proposed.

Motion sickness is caused by the information differences between the vestibular, visual, and bodily senses. Window curvature and sight blurring are considered to influence eyesight information. This study experimentally investigated the influence of motion sickness by window curvature and sight blurring changes in the response to multiple combinations of conditions. The result indicated that a view from a car window with a vertical wave on the window surface was likely to cause motion sickness. Conversely, visual distortion in the horizontal direction could be acceptable to passengers. The study also proposed the minimum design requirements for car-body shape based on the results.

Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology with great potential has recognized to impact affective and cognitive learning outcomes in the field of educational research. In the present study indicate, that the proposed education method based on AR technology can improve learning motivation and attention. A better interactive learning environment was established by this AR method. The research used AR technology and mobile devices such as cell phone in the teaching environment of mission analysis package of MDMP as the target. An experimental group and a control group were designed to evaluate the communication between teacher and students, including the advantages of learning cognition. Divided into two groups (classes), 40 officers receiving the training in Army Command and Staff College were the subjects of this research. The results showed that the proposed method could strengthen the communication conditions between the teacher and learners, and improve the students’ cognition and understand of the operating procedure.