CHAPTER 9 USABILITY Karl H. E. Kroemer, . Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia DESIGNING FOR HUMAN BODY SIZE / DESIGNING FOR HUMAN BODY POSTURE / DESIGNING FOR REACH AND MOBILITY / DESIGNING FOR HUMAN FORCE AND POWER / DESIGNING FOR FAST AND ACCURATE CONTROL ACTIVATION / DESIGNING LABELS AND WARNINGS / DESIGNING FOR VISION / DESIGNING FOR MATERIAL HANDLING / CONCLUSION / REFERENCES / ADDRESSES / Not only must tools, equipment, and machines function, but in many cases their effectiveness. | CHAPTER 9 USABILITY Karl H. E. Kroemer . Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg Virginia DESIGNING FOR HUMAN BODY SIZE DESIGNING FOR HUMAN BODY POSTURE I DESIGNING FOR REACH AND MOBILITY I DESIGNING FOR HUMAN FORCE AND POWER DESIGNING FOR FAST AND ACCURATE CONTROL ACTIVATION DESIGNING LABELS AND WARNINGS DESIGNING FOR VISION I DESIGNING FOR MATERIAL HANDLING I CONCLUSION I REFERENCES ADDRESSES Not only must tools equipment and machines function but in many cases their effectiveness depends on how well a human can use and operate them. A pair of pliers is useless unless it is held in the human hand a lathe if not run automatically needs an operator to observe the cutting edge to operate controls and to feed and unload maintenance and repair of equipment must be facilitated by proper design. Of course fitting tools and work to human capabilities and limitations has always been done but this was formally established as work physiology and industrial psychology early in the twentieth century. During the Second World War human engineering was systematically applied to weapon systems and since then it has been increasingly applied to technical products and human-machine systems. Ergonomics the current generally used term is rooted in safety and ease of use its desired outcome is the optimization of work especially of the interface between the human and the technical product. Designing for human use is the field of ergonomics or human factors engineering. The term ergonomics was coined in 1950 from two Greek words ergon for human work and nomos for rules. In the United States the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the professional organization the worldwide umbrella organization is the International Ergonomics Association with nearly three dozen national member societies. Courses in ergonomics or human engineering are taught in more than fifty
