Ergodesign Methodology for Product Design : A Human-centered Approach

This book presents a co-design detailed methodology that will enable the reader to develop human-centered product designs, considering the user’s needs, skills, and limitations.

The purpose of this book is to produce an ergonomic design methodology in which the "user’s voice" can be translated into product requirements in a way that designers and manufacturers can use, characterizing it as a co-design methodology. It discusses important topics including ergonomics and product design, design specifications, project evaluation, modeling and prototyping, product safety, human error, kansei/affective engineering, usability and user experience, models of usability, methods for research and evaluation of usability, methods for evaluation of user-experience, preliminary strategic design planning, detailing design, and design, ergonomic and pandemics.

The book offers a human-centered design methodology that allows the reader to carry out analysis and design projects for both products aimed at the disabled user population and those that serve the general population. It will be a valuable reference text for undergraduate and graduate students and professionals in the fields of ergonomics, design, architecture, engineering, and related fields. It can also be used by students and professionals of physiotherapy and occupational therapy interested in designing products for people with special needs.

Marcelo M. Soares is currently a Full Professor at the School of Design, Hunan University, China, selected for this post under the 1000 Talents Plan of the Chinese Government. He is also a licensed Full Professor of the Department of Design at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. He holds an M.S. (1990) in Industrial Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a Ph.D. from Loughborough University, England. He was a post-doc- toral fellow at the Industrial Engineering and Management System Department, University of Central Florida. He served as an invited lecturer at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, University of Central Florida, USA, and the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. Dr Soares is Professional Certified Ergonomist from the Brazilian Ergonomics Association, where he was president for seven years. He has provided leadership in ergonomics in Latin American and in the world as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA). Dr Soares served as Chairman of IEA 2012 (the Triennial Congresses of the International Ergonomics Association), held in Brazil. Professor Soares is currently a member of the editorial boards of Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing, and several journal publications in Brazil. He has about 50 papers published in jour- nals, over 177 conference proceedings papers, and 28 books, and 81 book chapters. He has undertaken research and consultancy work for several companies in Brazil. Prof. Soares is co-editor of the Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Consumer Product Design, the Handbook of Usability and User-Experience (UX), and the Handbook of Standards and Guidelines in Human Factors and Ergonomics published by CRC Press. His research, teaching, and consulting activities focus on manufacturing ergonomics, usability engineering, consumer product design, information ergonomics, and applications of virtual reality and neuroscience in products and systems. He also studies user emotions when using products and techniques in real and virtual environments based on biofeedback (electroencephalography and infrared thermography).