Colloquia

Summary

Despite the abundance of ergonomic research in fields such as hand tool and workstation design, existing knowledge is fragmented, and little guidance exists for designers working on handheld electronic devices. To address this gap, the project applies the Design Thinking methodology, moving though the phases of empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test, to iteratively develop and evaluate a new ergonomic design tool. 

The research combines insights from academic and grey literature with data from co-design sessions involving designers and end users. These sessions revealed that ergonomic requirements vary significantly depending on usage context, highlighting the need for a flexible framework rather than a static set of guidelines. 

This thesis explores how ergonomic design guidelines for handheld electronic devices can be structured into a practical, flowchart-like tool to support designers in making context-sensitive ergonomic design decisions.