Basics of Ergonomic Product Design Based on Psychology: An Integrated Approach to Art & Manufacturing

Document Type : Original/Research/Regular Article

Author

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN DEPT., SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, IRAN UNIV. OF SCIENCE & TECH.

Abstract

The quality of everyday products and quality of life of their consumers are tightly connected to eachother. One of the main concerns of industrial designers is the product design suitable for Iranian consumers’ taste. To this purspose, there are important elements to be considered during product design process including artistic charecteristics, technical features of products, exploration of customers’ needs and the limitations of industrial sectors.
As a multidisciplinary field, industrial design helps manufacturing industrial sectors develop products that comply with the customers’ need. Similarly, Ergonomics, as multidisciplinary science, is concerned with meeting both physical and emotional aspects of human needs. This science plays an important role in the design of the product. Ergonomics considerations in product design results in the production of safe, secure and attractive products that satisfies the customers.
Undoubtedly, for those industrial sector authorities who seek for successful manufacturing, marketing and development of products, customer-care processes are important. Pioneers of production firms and marketing managers also emphasize on the abovementioned approach. The customer satisfaction and his persistence in choosing and buying the product depend on the quality and desirability of the product. Therefore, the customer's experience and his/her perception of production should be taken as the determining factor in the purchase of any given product. Of course, there are some other important factors such as duration of use of the product, customer’s previous information about it and its history. After purchasing a product and upon using it, a new understanding of the product is created for the customer.  
This new experience may result in whether full satisfaction or dissatisfaction and factors such as the brand, design type, usability and initial price contribute to such understanding. Therefore, in this study, the ergonomic design of products has been carefully considered as an important factor in meeting customer satisfaction. Likewise, customer’s perception of the product and considerations of ergonomic design based on semantics comprise the main scopes of the current research.  
In this descriptive study, the scientific role of designers in the publication of scientific and research-based articles and their attention towards the requirements of the industries was considered. The papers published during the last decade in SID Database have been studied among which are thiry one journals such as Negareh  (Quarterly), Bagh-E Nazar  (Monthly),  Journal Of Deramatic Arts And Music  (Semi-Annually), Scholary Journal Of Theoretical Principles Of Visual Arts  (Semi-Annually), Journal Of Architecture Studies  (Quarterly), Journal Of Visual And Applied Arts  (Semi-Annually), Journal Of Studies On Iranian Islamic City  (Quarterly), Maremat-E Asar & Baft-Haye Tarikhi-Farhangi  (Quarterly), Motaleate Tatbighi Honar  (Semi-Annually, Naqshejahan  (Semi-Annually), Journal Of Architecture And Urban Planning  (Semi-Annually), Journal Of Architectural Thought  (Semi-Annually), Housing And Rural Environment (Quarterly), International Journal Of Architectural Engineering And Urban Planning  (Semi-Annually) and so on.
In this part of the study, words such as emotion, productivity, production, ergonomics, aesthetics, product, and industrial design were searched within these journals. Based on this research, it seems that product design based on criterias such as aesthetics, ergonomics and hedonomics play an important role in meeting customer satisfaction. Undoubtedly, these kinds of products, which the customers consider purchasing, play a critical role defining industrial sectors’ strategies.
As hedonomics concern users’ mental and emotional satisfaction, so those productd designed based on hedonomics are often chosen as useful products. Aesthetics features of products and their pleasurable design are important for costumers and ergonomics and hedonomics play a prominent role in this respect. The results of this paper indicate that ergonomics helps designers develop new products based on the needs of both costumers and producers.

Keywords


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