Where Human Meets Machine
It is often said by HCI experts and interaction designers that good design is good ergonomics. It has also been found that products that look better are easier to use.
This Hello Kitty mouse misses the target on both design and ergonomics. Ergonomics does not equal cute!
[tags]hello kitty, HCI, interaction design[/tags]
Next time you go to Disneyland, show your appreciation to Mickey Mouse and all his friends. The people inside those costumes work for low wages and risk a variety of injuries resulting from costume design. In fact, these costumes sound so awful, they warrant the title of “ergonomic nightmare.”
Excerpts from OSHA records show high rate [...]
Several elementary school classrooms across the country have replaced their hard plastic chairs with bouncy ball seating. In my opinion, the idea is absolutely genius. I wish I got to sit on a ball in school…
Mrs. Raabe’s fifth-grade class in Charlotte, North Carolina recently embraced ergonomic innovation in an attempt to increase attention [...]
In the last decade or so, many schools have removed lockers in order to save money. Ultimately, students suffer because of this. It is not uncommon for kids to lug 40 pound behemoths on their backs all day long (I remember doing this all through middle school).
Here are some tips to help lighten the burden:
Choose [...]
Originally uploaded by Beth Rousseau
We start so young, it’s no wonder we all have bad backs!
It took a biology professor with an entrepreneurial spirit to find a solution to the problem of heavy backpacks. Dr. Rome invented the Suspended Load Backpack, which uses elastic cords to suspend a backpack from a rigid frame, reducing the energy needed to carry the load and easing the stress on shoulders and joints.
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Ergoweb reports:
Young people of the digital age need to know how to prevent pain from using their tools and toys. A new ergonomics campaign and web site shows them the way.
Many everyday activities of today’s youngsters – texting, playing on games consoles, watching TV, sitting and talking to friends on the phone, using a computer [...]
I missed the boat on the Wii for now. No longer available at my local Target or Walmart, and now going for up to $1000 on ebay, I think I’ll have to wait.
But according to the videos I’ve seen so far on Youtube of Wii users, the user base that Nintendo intended to capture [...]
The baby care product industry is a billion dollar industry, producing hundreds of different kinds of strollers, seats, cribs, cradles, pens, gates, chairs, holsters, and harnesses to keep babies safe and contained as parents go about their days.
The funny thing is, there really is only one kind of baby carrier necessary, and it is simple [...]
Ergonomics is the science of people-machine relationships. An ergonomically designed product is in harmony with a person’s body, mind, or actions. So what does an ergonomic product for kids look like?
The Tooth Tunes toothbrush from Hasbro is a great example of a product designed with how kids think and act. Everybody who has [...]