Ergonomics for Interaction

Who knew. The School of Visual Art (SVA) in New York has a department dedicated to Interaction Design. Yet another specialization, but it makes sense when you consider all the "interactive designs" we deal with every day: the multitude of computer screens, large and small.

This evening (12/09/09) SVA hosted a talk by Rob Tannen, of the Bressler Group. Tannen is a designer specializing in ergonomics. In just an hour he gave a concise overview of what ergonomics is: the study of design or a product (or tool) to best suit a defined task to be performed by a range of specific users, evaluated from a quantitative and qualitative point of view. To oversimplify: "I can do the job, it doesn't hurt, and my boss is happy with the time it took." No joke though, this is a serious discipline.

The typical factors of fit for a physical product concern the person using it: what will his "posture" be, can he "reach or hold" the item, does he have "clearance" room to move, and the "strength" to actuate or carry the item. For an interactive device, Tannen relates these factors, respectively, to "scale and orientation," to "travel-distance between points on the display" to "'white' space between elements" and finally "frequency of touch". This give a different outlook on what we interact with daily.

As interesting as the talk was, the Q&A brought up three points that I found very interesting:

1. He mentioned that many designs created in designs firms, as a commission from a client, do not get produced, for one reason or another.
   
   
2. Sometimes (I expect frequently else why would be consider it noteworthy) designs are substantially changed during manufacture because they could not be made as designed. In particular he noted this in the context of makers in China, but I think that is probably because of the volume of work done there and the challenges of communication over the time, distance and languages.
   
   
3. Designers and design firms do not usually get to evaluate the work after the final product is in users' hands (other than observing whether or not it continues to be made).

The second point, on changes in manufacture, is very interesting. I have observed that sometimes designers envision a design solution that is difficult or impossible to execute, perhaps because they simply don't have extensive engineering knowledge. On the other hand, I have also observed that many manufacturers do not employ experienced engineers or have the best equipment. What one insists is "impossible" turns out to be perfectly possible when the right company is found.

I think more cross training is in order between design, engineering, and manufacturing people. Here in the USA, I hope.

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