Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Ergonomics II

Ergonomics, as explained in the previous blog posts, is a workplace design that is designed to provide optimum comfort and avoid stress or injury. There are 5 aspects of Ergonomics; they are safety, comfort, ease of use, productivity(or performance) and aesthetics. I shall give some examples to elaborate on my points.

For safety, it can be a product like a walking stick, crutches or any sort of support that can prevent the elderly from falling and injuring themselves.
For comfort, it can be something that the elderly use when they are resting or even sleeping. In this case, it can be a seat, sofa or bed-practically anything as long it is viable.




For ease of use, it will be some complex devices which are invented such that they are simple enough to accommodate to the need of the elderly. It can range from phones to remote controls, which often appear in our daily lives. They must have huge buttons due to the failing eyesight of the elderly so the elderly can see them clearly with ease.


For productivity, I will probably use furniture as an example. If the house has the appropriate furniture to match the design of the house, the elderly will certainly appreciate it and thus stay at home without any worries, some of which will be related to safety. Perhaps, the furniture is too old and thus looks quite weird in the interior of the house. However, when it is replaced with a better furniture, the mood of the place will change and the elderly will naturally feel more comfortable and relaxed.


Aesthetics is a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation with beauty. For aesthetics, it must be a versatile item that also looks good in appearance, even though the good appearance will be unnecessary. We can have a chair with armrest. It looks good and it is also comfortable, making it ideal for the elderly and even people of other age groups.

(This is done with reference to this website and I have also taken some photos from Google.)

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