Topic 1: Human factors and ergonomics
● 1.1: Anthropometrics
Human factors: the term used for the combination/grouping of ergonomics and anthropometrics.
Aims of human factors:
- Reduce errors, stress and fatigue and increase ease, efficiency and safety.
- Enhance operational comfort.
- Improve performance, reliability and maintenance.
Ergonomics: The application of scientific information between human beings and the design of
objects and environments.
Physical ergonomics: The aspect of ergonomics that deals with body measurements, particularly size,
strength, shape and physical capacity.
Cognitive ergonomics: The aspect of ergonomics related to mental processes, such as perception,
memory, reasoning and motor response. It focuses and affects interactions between humans and
systems or environments.
Organizational ergonomics: The aspect of ergonomics that includes communication, work design
and shifts, management, resource management, teamwork…
Anthropometric data:
- Static data / Structural data: Data measured during standby in a fixed position.
- Dynamic data / Functional data: Dynamic data measured during movements or physical
activities.
Percentiles and percentile ranges:
Topic 2: Resource management & sustainable production
● 2.1: Resource and reserves
Renewable resources: A natural source which can replenish with time. Wind, solar, tidal, wave,
hydroelectric, plantation of timber…
Non-renewable resources: Non-renewable source of a resource that does not renew or replenish itself
at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction. Coal, petroleum, natural gas…
2.1 Resource and Reserves
Resources are the stock or supply of available materials.
• Renewable Resources: Natural sources that can replenish over time or are considered inexhaustible,
such as wind, solar, tidal, wave, and hydroelectric power. These are generally characterized by being
inexhaustible, not affected by human activities, releasing fewer carbon emissions, but being more
expensive to implement.
• Non-Renewable Resources: Resources found in fixed and limited quantities that do not replenish at a
sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction, such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, and fossil fuels.
They release more carbon emissions but are less expensive to implement.
• Reserves: Natural resources that have been identified in terms of quantity and quality.
2.2 Waste Mitigation Strategies
These strategies aim to reduce or eliminate the volume of material disposed to landfill, moving away from
a "throwaway society".
• Waste Mitigation Strategies: Include
Re-use (using the product again in the same or different context, e.g., plastic bags),
Recycle (using materials from obsolete products to create new ones),
Repair (reconstruction or renewal of a part),
Recondition (rebuilding a product to "as new" condition, e.g., car engines),
Re-engineer (redesigning components for improvement), and
Dematerialisation (reducing material quantities to "do more with less").
• Product Recovery Strategies: Focus on recovering components or energy from waste, including Raw
Material Recovery, WEEE Recovery (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and Energy Recovery
(generating electricity or heat from waste, also known as Waste-to-Energy or EfW).
• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA): The assessment of the environmental effect of a product through all five
stages of life: pre-production, production, distribution, utilization, and disposal.
• Circular Economy: An economic model where resource value is maintained for as long as possible,
minimizing extracted resources and waste at the end of the product life cycle, contrasting with the linear
model (Take, Make, Dispose, Waste).
2.3 Energy Utilisation, Storage, & Distribution
Efficient energy use and conservation are crucial considerations for designers.
• Embodied Energy: The total energy required to produce a product.
• Distributing Energy: Involves national and international grid systems, allowing electricity generated
internationally to be used across countries.
• Local Combined Heat and Power (CHP): Plants that generate heat and power for a local community
efficiently from a single fuel source. Advantages include reduced energy costs and reduced emissions.
• Quantification and Mitigation of Carbon Emissions: Includes monitoring (recording how much is
produced) and human intervention to reduce emissions (mitigation), which contributes to global warming.
• Batteries and Capacities: Devices like batteries convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy
and are essential for portability in electronic products.
2.4 Clean Technology
Clean technology refers to products, services, or processes that reduce waste and require the minimum
amount of non-renewable resources.
• Drivers: Regulation (laws), local community, and media pressure motivate the cleanup of manufacturing.
• Solutions: Can be Incremental (products improved and developed over time, gradual change) or
Radical (a completely new product devised by rethinking the solution).
• End-of-Pipe Technologies: Methods used to remove already escaped contaminants, such as filtration
systems, at the end of a process.
• Systems Level Solutions: Solutions implemented to deal with the whole system, rather than just
individual components, addressing the interrelationship of factors.
2.5 Green Design
Green design aims to reduce the environmental impact of a product throughout its life.
• Design Objectives: Relate to three broad categories: materials, energy, and pollution/waste.
Objectives include minimizing damage from chosen materials and reducing long-term harm caused by
product use.
• Strategies for Designing Green Products: Include considering materials, energy, and pollution/waste,
designing for dematerialization, low impact materials, cleaner production, disassembly, and longevity.
• Principles: Includes the Prevention Principle (avoidance or minimization of producing waste) and the
Precautionary Principle (anticipating potential environmental problems in relation to production, use,
and disposal).
2.6 Eco Design
Eco-design is a more comprehensive approach than green design because it attempts to focus on all
three broad environmental categories: materials, energy, and pollution/waste.
• Philosophies: Includes Cradle to Grave (considering environmental effects from manufacture to
disposal) and Cradle to Cradle (design philosophy that aims to eliminate waste; focusing on products
made to be reused or recycled).
• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA): The cornerstone of eco-design, assessing a product's effect through all five
stages of life (pre-production through disposal).
• Drivers: Internal factors include management responsibility and need for increased product quality;
external factors include government regulation, market demand, and competitors.
• Converging Technologies: The synergistic merging of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and
communication technology, and cognitive science, often relevant in considering energy consumption and
disassembly of products like smartphones.
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Topic 5: Innovation + Design
5.1 Invention and Design
Invention is the process of discovering a principle resulting in a novel product. Innovation is the act of
successfully launching an invention in the marketplace.
• Drivers for Invention: Include personal interest/creativity, scientific curiosity, constructive discontent,
and the desire to make money or help others.
• Intellectual Property (IP): Legally recognized exclusive rights to creations of the mind. Benefits
include differentiating from competitors and offering revenue streams via licensing.
• Strategies for Protecting IP:
Patents (government agreement granting rights to make or sell a new invention for a period);
Trademarks (recognizable signs distinguishing products/services); and
Copyright (legal right granting exclusive rights to use and distribution of an original work).
• Shelved Technologies: Products held back due to factors like the social market, lack of technology, or
timing.
• First to Market: The first product that creates a new market or product category.
5.2 Innovation
Different types of innovation drive product evolution:
• Sustaining Innovation: Incremental value gains over existing solutions, continually updated to maintain
success.
• Disruptive Innovation: Technology that challenges existing companies, often by introducing new
solutions that redefine the market (e.g., mobile phones disrupting landlines).
• Modular Innovation: The basic product architecture remains the same, but key components are changed
(e.g., a new switch on a toaster).
• Radical Innovation: Completely new products devised by going back to the roots of a problem,
changing the market paradigm (e.g., invention of smartphones).
• Diffusion: The process where a market accepts a new idea or product.
• Suppression: The delayed adoption of a product, potentially due to difficulties competing with a
dominant design or resistance to an unfamiliar concept.
5.3 Strategies for Innovation
Strategies used for generating and advancing innovation:
• Act of Insight (Eureka Moment): A sudden revelation suggesting a solution.
• Adaptation: An existing technology or solution from one field is applied to solve a problem in another.
• Analogy: Using an idea from one context to stimulate ideas in a different context (e.g., sonar modelled
on bats).
• Technology Transfer: A technology, manufacturing process, or material is transferred to another field to
form the basis for an invention.
• Technology Push: Scientific research leads to advances in technology that underpin a new idea, where
the innovation is created first and then applications are sought.
• Market Pull: A new idea is generated directly as a result of demand from the marketplace.
5.4 Stakeholders in Invention and Innovation
Three key roles:
• Lone Inventor: An individual working outside an organization committed to the invention of a novel
product.
• Product Champion: An influential individual who develops enthusiasm for a particular idea or
invention and advocates for it.
• Entrepreneur: An influential individual who takes an invention to market, often through financing.
5.5 Product Life Cycle
The Product Life Cycle describes a product’s presence in the marketplace over time.
• Key Stages:
1. Introduction/Launch: Slow sales, little profit.
2. Growth: Market accepts the product, sales expand.
3. Maturity: Sales peak and remain steady, achieving maximum profit.
4. Decline: Market saturation reached, sales and profit reduce.
• Obsolescence: The state of becoming outdated, which affects the product life cycle. Types include
Planned (deliberately limiting useful life),
Style/Fashion (reduction in styling desirability),
Functional (reduction of usefulness due to wear or lack of parts/service), and
Technological (reduction of usefulness due to newer technology superseding it).
• Product Versioning/Generations: Producing different models of the same product, often used to
maintain a pioneering strategy and consistent revenue flow.
5.6 Rogers’ Characteristics of Innovation and Consumers
Rogers' characteristics influence how quickly an innovation spreads (diffusion):
• Relative Advantage: How superior the innovation is perceived to be over existing ones.
• Compatibility: The degree to which the innovation is consistent with existing values and needs of
potential adopters.
• Complexity: The degree to which the innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use
(simplicity is favorable).
• Observability: The degree to which the results of the innovation are visible to others.
• Trialability: The degree to which the innovation can be experimented with on a limited basis.
• Consumer Categories (Adopters): Consumers are categorized based on their propensity to adopt new
technology: Innovators (risk takers, first to adopt), Early Adopters (second fastest, the "tipping point"),
Early Majority (take time to consider, rely on feedback), Late Majority, and Laggards (high resistance
to adopt).
5.7 Innovation, Design, & Marketing Specifications
This section deals with market research and defining product requirements.
• Target Markets and Audiences: The target market is the segment targeted by the product, while the
target audience is the specific group of people within that market aimed at.
• Design and Marketing Specifications: A list of requirements, constraints, and considerations (aesthetic,
cost, safety, materials, manufacturing) that the product must fulfill, derived from the design brief and
research.
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Topic 6: Classic Design
Topic 6 explores the nature of designs that achieve timeless appeal, examining the relationship between
form and function.
6.1 Characteristics of Classic Design
A classic design is an industrially manufactured object with timeless appeal.
• Image: The general impression that something presents to the public.
• Status & Culture: Classic designs are often recognized across cultures and hold bold iconic status.
• Obsolescence: While classic designs have timeless appeal, obsolescence refers to something obsolete
being no longer produced or of no use.
• Mass Production: The production of large quantities of standardized products on production lines.
• Ubiquitous/Omnipresence: The product is widely present and can be found everywhere.
• Dominant Design: The emergence of a product possessing a particular feature that becomes essential.
6.2 Classic Design, Function and Form
This sub-topic analyzes the balance between what a product does (function) and what it looks like (form).
• Form vs. Function: The principle of "form follows function" means the design result should derive
directly from its purpose. However, in classic design, the form can sometimes transcend the function.
• Conflict and Compromise: Designers often face difficulty finding the right balance between form and
function; products developed purely for aesthetic form might lack functional attributes (e.g., the Juicy Salif
citrus juicer).
• Retro Styling: Imitation of a style, fashion, or design from the recent past.
• Practical Function: Determined by a rational, logical approach to design, focusing on the object's
usability and reliability.
• Psychological Function: Determined by emotional responses to the product, relating to personal
identity, fads, and desirability.