Designing for People – Part 2

 

A wealth of presentations were given at the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors annual conference last week, and I wanted to share just some of the key snippets of knowledge from the conference:
– British Standards are about knowledge – knowledge about what ‘good’ looks like.  They are devised to be best practice enablers – they help people to deliver better. Standards are not regulations; regulations detail the minimum legal requirement, complying with standards is not a legal requirement (note: some regulations are called standards which creates confusion in this area).

– Good design requires the consideration of the three P’s – People (the benefit the product delivers to the users, how usable and desirable it is), Profit (commercial viability, technical viability and compatibility), and Planet (resource consumption, waste control, energy efficiency).

– In order to develop inclusive technologies there is a need to understand past experiences with technology and draw on the forms of interactions they demanded of their users, e.g., single action single response for today’s elders.

–  Usability and sustainability can be thought of as mutually inclusive and complementary components. This insight was gained from a tap design study that subjectively measured the usability of three taps in public toilets; usability scores were then compared to the amount of water used when people washed their hands.

Eddy Elton