Industrial

24 Nov, 14

How to have happy winter feet

Winter is approaching (well, approaching last week, and receding today, but it will be back!), and it’s time to pull out the winter footwear. In the fall, it’s fun to pull on the boots, but when the white stuff comes, we realise that, just like we need winter tires, we also need winter footwear. If you […]
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Design for extremes

Our last blog talked about “designing for average”, but designing for average doesn’t just mean thinking about height; we also need to consider age and weight. Josie recently tuned in to Humantech’s Webinar on Designing the Workplace for the Aging and Obese Population… kind of a touchy subject. But the presentation definitely reminded us of […]
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16 Oct, 14

Design for average – why not?

At the 2014 Association of Canadian Ergonomists conference in Montreal, we presented a paper on design for average. Sometimes we do this….when you install a counter in your kitchen, or buy a “one-size-fits-all” hand tool, you’re probably considering an “average” user. Usually, this works just fine for most people. But occasionally, the “design-for-average” decision can have […]
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22 Sep, 14

Fall ergo conference

Carrie and Karen will be heading to Montreal in October to present five papers. (“Conference” does not equal “break” for us!) Here’s what we’ll be talking about at the annual ACE conference. (Check out the conference at http://www.ace-ergocanada.ca/index.php?contentid=1054.) The impact of design for average: Despite our understanding that we must design for the “limiting user” […]
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07 Aug, 14

Introducing the PDP – faster, better, shorter!

We have been doing physical demands descriptions (PDD, also known as PDAs) for over 20 years, and our reports invariably get great feedback. They are thorough, objective, concise, and communicate effectively with photos. We MEASURE forces and distances, heights, and reaches. We quantify exposure to awkward postures or static efforts. Our clients use our PDDs […]
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16 Jul, 14

Sharp knife requires less effort

Years ago, I would have been disappointed to receive kitchen utensils as a birthday gift, but this year, when I was given a set of new knives, I was quite excited. In the past few months, I’ve noticed that cutting is more work than it used to be – I worried that this was a […]
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