Ergonomics Design

Digital device ubiquity increased the need for HCI’s analysis, but academic research is frequently supported in week frameworks. The establishment of a structured body of knowledge is essential for the development of more efficient interfaces and interaction experiences.

The italic cursive calligraphic style originates, in general terms, from the simplification of the gesture of writing, since the inclination is a consequence of the speed and movement of the gesture. Italic fonts and the calligraphic style are easily recognizable in the Western world. However, contrary to what happens in typography studies, it is noted that the history of italics has not been adequately addressed in the scientific literature on the history of design, where the formal characteristics are not analyzed in a coherent way. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: to clarify the historical origins of italics, taking into account, in particular, the morphological evolution of the style from informal to formal writing and the adaptation of the shape of calligraphic characters to typography; to identify and analyze its characteristics, differentiating it from both regular and oblique variants; apply the study of movement and gesture to the drawing of the letter in ita...

Applications helping us to maintain the focus on work are called “Zenware” (from concentration and Zen). While form factors, use cases and functionality vary, all these applications have a common goal: creating uninterrupted, focused attention on the task at hand. The rise of such tools exemplifies the users’ desire to control their attention within the context of omnipresent distraction. In expert interviews we investigate approaches in the context of attention-management at the workplace of knowledge workers. To gain a broad understanding, we use judgement sampling in interviews with experts from several disciplines. We especially explore how focus and flow can be stimulated. Our contribution has four components: a brief overview on the state of the art (1), a presentation of the results (2), strategies for coping with digital distractions and design guidelines for future Zenware (3) and an outlook on the overall potential in digital work environments (4).

The objective of this article is to present a project of a professional nature that we have been developing in the School of Education of the Polytechnic of Lisbon aiming the immersion of the students of the Visual Arts and Technologies Course in real pedagogical, work, social or research contexts. In this way, it is intended to provide students with the opportunity to collaborate into projects with projection and consideration of inputs from the community. At the level of applied research, this project is able to develop research in the field of design, constituting an open door to the development of inter and transdisciplinary research, collaborative with other scientific fields. As an arrival point, students are offered the opportunity to collaborate in real projects, with a community projection, generated in an immersive learning context, facilitating and fostering creativity, as well as the development of cultural and social enrichment activities.

During the last few decades successive technological advances have brought innovation that facilitates our day-to-day life but also induces business transformation, bringing employment instability and constantly changing required skills. The intent of this paper is to help understanding what challenges workforce must face, which core skills must be mastered and what has been done so far. Reflecting about past challenges, present difficulties, and solutions found along the years may help us in preparing for the future. We first reflect on the changes caused by increased technological advances in every sector of activity during the last decades; then we analyze existing approaches in defining future challenges, present and future critical skills and solutions implemented by policy makers, universities and industry. We also analyze the most common barriers to that implementation, how to overcome them, and how may we prepare to those future challenges.

Human-centred design is based on the satisfaction of the user needs mainly related to performances, interaction, comfort, usability, accessibility, and visibility issues. However, the “real” user experience (UX) is hidden and usually difficult to detect. The paper proposes a multimodal system based on the collection of physiological and anthropometrical performance data on field and within a mixed prototyping set-up. The mixed environment makes users interact with virtual and digital items and users’ performance to be capture and digitalized, simulating human-machine interaction, while physiological and anthropometrical data collection allows to objectify the users’ physical and mental workload during task execution. Such a system has been applied to an industrial case study focusing on agricultural machinery driving and control to support the definition of a new cabin and its control board, in terms of seat features, commands’ positioning and grouping, and positioning of additional devices.

This paper deconstructs the inherent modular nature of the Latin alphabet, more specifically its structure and anatomy. Letterforms are often rendered into grids and occasionally through the usage of geometric shapes and/or other reusable shapes, a practice which has been useful for either letterform design teaching purposes or actual longform text setting by calligraphic methods. We propose a theoretical approach, with a non-interventionist methodology of qualitative research, through literary review in which we evaluate the state of the art. Authors across the academic and historic spectrum are reviewed: ranging from the humanistic Dürer – with his Underweysung der Messung treatise – to the mathematically-inclined Hofstadter – with his Letter Spirit project –, but also including specialists such as Johnston, Gill, Tschichold, Albers, Schrofer, Crouwel, Noordzij, Briem, Frutiger and Knuth – with their extensive theoretical treatises supported by constant professional practice. Our ...

A great deal has been written in the educational literature about the use of distance education, given the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web on the Internet. Web-based courses are now available or under development at many academic institutions and through corporate universities. Educators are concerned, however, about ensuring the quality of online courses, and many question whether online courses can maintain the same high standards of excellence as traditional classroom instruction. One way to ensure quality control over online instruction is to establish an ongoing instructional quality assessment process. This chapter discusses background information and several considerations for assessing the quality of online instruction. (Contains 47 references.) (GCP) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. Assessing the Quality of Online Instruction: Integrating Instructional Quality and Web Usability Assessments

The rise of magnetic levitation technology for trains (Maglev) in the XX century can be seen as a conquest since those trains can reach speeds up to 590 km/h. In Brazil nearly 85% of the public transportation is made by bus which affect the general circulation speed and stimulates the population to migrate to individual transportation options, reducing the potential demand and increasing public transportation costs. This paper proposes the actual literature review on the maglev technology to characterize its use on cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. After the analysis, a discussion on the maglev technology integration with other transportation modes improves not only the average speed on public transportation but it also reduces the background noises on a high populated area, plus integrating distant neighborhoods and different commercial and industrial with a more reliable and predictable service improving the city’s urban mobility factors.

In this research, we investigate user experiences with the Laevo exoskeletons in geriatric work. We introduce two studies where Finnish nurses used exoskeletons and identify the requirements and potential restrictions for using exoskeletons in care context. Our results show that nurses’ intentions to use the exoskeletons were mostly associated with perceived usefulness, ergonomics, and enjoyment of use. Also, social environment issues, such as other people’s reactions, are important considerations. Exoskeleton use has varying requirements depending on where it will be implemented. Thus, the end users’ ideas for the design are crucial in enabling exoskeleton use in different sectors of work.

A scenario based on actual cases is presented in which a consumer fails to detect a gas leak. A spark source ignites the vapor, causing an explosion and fire. Odorant added to alert people of gas leaks is not always detected for a number of reasons, including nasal congestion, sleep, odor fade, masking, and adaptation or habituation. Electronic gas sensors that alarm in the presence of explosive gas are available in the consumer marketplace and could augment leak detection.

The objective of this article is to present a project of a professional nature that we have been developing in the School of Education of the Polytechnic of Lisbon aiming the immersion of the students of the Visual Arts and Technologies Course in real pedagogical, work, social or research contexts. In this way, it is intended to provide students with the opportunity to collaborate into projects with projection and consideration of inputs from the community. At the level of applied research, this project is able to develop research in the field of design, constituting an open door to the development of inter and transdisciplinary research, collaborative with other scientific fields. As an arrival point, students are offered the opportunity to collaborate in real projects, with a community projection, generated in an immersive learning context, facilitating and fostering creativity, as well as the development of cultural and social enrichment activities.

A critical challenge in creating text entry interfaces for noncomputer-based devices is to devise a highly usable solution that blends aesthetic and functional concerns. As psychologists, we study user and environmental factors that facilitate usability, although this research often is not presented in a format that designers can use. This article presents a framework for guiding the systematic and comprehensive analysis of design requirements through the assessment of critical psychological components. We highlight several solutions from typing and mobile devices that can be directly transferred into a new system and note those areas that typically call for customized solutions.

In Brazil there is a legal framework that guides the action of professionals in the area of education regarding intervention for children with disabilities. The main one in this set refers to the demand for the “Inclusive School” environment, which refers to the enrolment of children with disabilities in regular education settings. According to this policy, professionals in the fields of education and health seek the mechanisms to best serve students with disabilities in public educational institutions. These professionals develop research projects in partnership with Universities and Research Institutes. This article reports the results of a sequence of projects that culminated in the development of pedagogical objects to support the learning process of students with autism or intellectual disability. These objects have been developed in collaboration with professionals of the areas of industrial and graphical design and also ergonomics and usability.

Currently, there are hardly any uniform design specifications for the construction of ablution places at mosques in Saudi Arabia. Designs of ablution places are usually copied from designs of ablution places in other mosques or based on individual perspectives. Based on the researchers’ anecdotal observations, most of these designs are nonergonomic, uncomfortable, and less user-friendly for ablution in either sitting or standing position, especially for the elderly. In such designs, water splashing is common because of inappropriate heights of platforms or seats, insufficient distances between seats and faucets, and improper shapes and depths of water drain. The purpose of the present study is to present the design of a novel ergonomic ablution place to ensure comfortable, safe, and hygienic conditions. The design is particularly related to the size and height of seat, height and distance of faucet from the seat, depth and slope of water drain, and height and width of the platform. ...