Ergonomics

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Ergonomics
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What is Ergonomics?
ERGONOMICS...The term ergonomics is derived
from two Greek words ergon, meaning work and
nomoi, meaning natural laws. Ergonomics is
the study human body in its working environment
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'Ergonomics is designing to suit people. If the
designer fails to take account of ergonomics the
resulting product or system will be unsuitable
for human operation or use and is likely to lead
to a greater risk of human error and injury. In
complex systems the resulting human errors can
lead to catastrophic loss of life as in recent
railway accidents and aircraft ones over a long
period. In more mundane jobs the failure can lead
to a lifetime of upper limb disorders or back
pain.'
Reg Sell, Past President and External Relations
Officer, The Ergonomics Society, 2002
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Ergonomics is a broad subject area and can be
split into 3 areas
1 Physical ergonomics Concerned with human
anatomical characteristics as they relate to
physical activity. The relevant topics include
controls and displays, working postures, manual
handling, repetitive movements, work-related
musculoskeletal disorders, workplace layout,
safety and health, lighting, and the thermal and
acoustic environment. 2 Psychological
ergonomics Concerned with mental processes, such
as perception, cognition, memory, reasoning and
emotion. The relevant topics include mental
workload, decision-making, skilled performance,
human-computer interaction, human reliability,
work stress, training and motivation. 3
Organisational ergonomics Concerned with the
organisation of the workplace, including their
policies, and processes. The relevant topics
include communication, staff resource management,
work design, design of working times, teamwork,
organisational culture, and quality management.
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Bad Ergonomics
This pictures was taken on the bridge of a Danish
vessel. Notice the position of the emergency stop
buttons (covered by with small cups usually used
for liquid medicine) The reason for this is the
following The black buttons work the thrusters
in the harbour alongside a quay, the captain is
usually standing in a position where he has his
back turned to the control panel and his front to
the window looking out of it. The only difference
between the two buttons with quite a different
functionality is their colour. And it is very
difficult to see the colour if you have your back
turned towards the buttons. It has happened that
the officer on watch pressed the wrong button
causing a full emergency stop at a very critical
moment while actually he needed the power from
the thrusters. To prevent this from happening,
the crew have placed these cups over the
emergency stop buttons.
Thrusters
Emergency Stop
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Good Ergonomics
The keyboard above has been designed to take
account of a users posture.
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Bad Ergonomics
This picture was taken on a ferry. There's an
emergency exit in this image.... effectively
masked by arts.
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Ergonomic Text
In the example above a poor choice of font has
been. It may look good but it is entirely
inappropriate for the job This is another example
of bad ergonomics as it could lead to the sign
being misinterpreted
This is much better as the text is clear
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Ergonomic Colours
The drawings on this page show two colour schemes
for a doctors surgery Which one has taken
ergonomics into consideration?
The colour scheme above uses bright, hot colours
perhaps not the first thing you would want to see
if you were feeling ill. The second design is far
better as it uses cool natural colours
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The End