Abstract
Ergonomic product design which considers users' natural-use motion is of importance to improve the usability and satisfaction of a product. A five-step process of product design was developed in the present study by measuring and analyzing users' natural product-use motion with a motion capture system. The developed process was applied to the ergonomic design improvement of a half-guard installation component of a refrigerator; new guard designs (diagonal and arc shape) were developed with the process and evaluated in terms of validity during the development as two measures (task satisfaction and similarity of natural motion). According to the evaluation result, the satisfaction at putting in- and out-task of new guard designs (diagonal and arc shape; 6.3 + 0.5 points) was significantly higher than that of existing guard designs (3.3 + 1.0 points); the difference between natural motion and product-use motion in new guard designs (1.0 + 0.3 cm) was significantly less than that of existing guard designs (nipper and rectangular shape; 2.0 + 0.2 cm). The proposed process of natural motion analysis and product design is widely applicable to ergonomic product design and evaluation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.