Making Things Better: An ergonomics exhibition at the Design Museum

人体工程学被描述为日常生活的科学。这是一个跨学科的领域，它将人类行为的知识与设计和工程相结合，以创造安全、高效、使用愉快的系统、产品和过程。这并不局限于工作领域，因为每当我们与任何一种人工制品互动时——从手机到商业客机——都会出现人体工程学问题。它也不仅仅是关于椅子设计或人机交互——例如，最近人体工程学的成功案例出现在交通安全和病人安全领域。事实上，一些人认为，随着科技在我们的生活中扮演更重要的角色，人体工程学将在21世纪大行其道。这是人体工程学的激动人心的时代。由于具有如此广泛的相关性，这一领域没有得到更广泛的认可也许令人惊讶。在人类工效学家中有一种特定的看法，即对该学科的广泛接受仍然有限。因此，人们坚持对人为错误的“旧观点”——当问题出现时，似乎往往是人们受到指责。如果一个用户不能操作他们的手机，他们可能会认为自己有技术恐惧症。如果在工作中发生意外，雇主可能会对有关人士采取补救或纪律行动。相反，我们希望看到一个更符合人体工程学的立场来反对这些问题——看看设备的设计或程序，看看为什么人类首先会犯错误。因此，这个项目的目的是“赠送人体工程学”——在英国的一些主要科学中心举办一个关于人体工程学的公共展览，目的是将人体工程学学家和公众聚集在一起，提高对人体工程学的欣赏及其在当今社会的相关性。该展览将首先在伦敦的设计博物馆展出，然后前往曼彻斯特科学与工业博物馆，然后前往布里斯托尔。他们还计划在之后将其带到其他场馆。人体工程学的有形性质使它成为每个人都能联系到的东西，这将反映在展品中，这将被设计成激发和热情，以及展示人体工程学的范围。我们特别想了解的一个方面是，同样的人体工程学原理适用于消费产品和更复杂的系统。例如，你在设置闹钟时可能犯的同样类型的错误导致了1992年一架商业客机的坠毁。在展览会上你就能找到原因。为了配合展览，我们将在每个地点举办特别活动，例如在开幕式和闭幕式上举办公开研讨会和邀请招待会，这将促进研究人员和科学消费者之间的对话。对我们来说同样重要的是，我们要确保参与过程是双向的——我们希望看到更多的研究人员和实践者让他们的工作与当今社会相关。在项目结束时，我们计划展示人类工程学问题的提高意识，并作为展览的直接结果在科学议程上增加突出地位。通过这种方式提高其知名度，我们希望鼓励人们成为更知情的消费者、雇主和雇员。

Ergonomics has been described as the science of everyday life. It's an interdisciplinary field which uses knowledge of human performance in conjunction with design and engineering in order to create systems, products and processes which are safe, efficient and enjoyable to use. It's not restricted to work domains, since there are ergonomic issues whenever we interact with any kind of artefact - from a mobile phone to a commercial airliner. Nor is it just about chair design or human-computer interaction - recent ergonomics success stories have been in the realms of transport safety and patient safety, for example. Indeed, some believe ergonomics will come into its own in the 21st century, as technology comes to play a more prominent role in our lives. These are exciting times in ergonomics.With such broad relevance, it is perhaps surprising that the field isn't more widely acknowledged. There is a certain perception amongst ergonomists that wider acceptance of the discipline remains limited. As such, people persist with 'old views' of human error - more often than not, it seems, when problems arise it is the people who usually get the blame. If a user cannot operate their mobile phone, they might write themselves off as technophobic. If an accident happens at work, the employer will likely take remedial or disciplinary action against the individual(s) concerned. Rather, we would like to see a more ergonomic stance against such issues - look at the design of the equipment or the procedures to see why the humans were making errors in the first place.Thus the aim of this project is to 'give ergonomics away' - to run a public exhibition on ergonomics at some of the key science centres in the UK, with the intention of bringing ergonomists and the public together to enhance appreciation of ergonomics and its relevance in today's society. The exhibition will run initially at the Design Museum in London, before moving on to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, and then to At-Bristol. There are long-term plans to take it to other venues afterwards as well. The tangible nature of ergonomics makes it something everyone can relate to, and this will be reflected in the exhibits, which will be designed to intrigue and enthuse as well as demonstrate the scope of ergonomics. One aspect which we particularly intend to get across is the way that the same ergonomics principles apply across consumer products and more complex systems. For instance, the same types of errors you might make in setting your alarm clock led to the crash of a commercial airliner in 1992. At the exhibition you'll be able to find out why.To complement the exhibition, we will run special events at each location, such as public seminars and invited receptions at the opening and closing ceremonies, which will facilitate a dialogue between researchers and consumers of the science. It is equally important to us that we ensure the engagement process is two-way - we would like to see more researchers and practitioners making their work accessible and relevant to today's society.At the end of the project, we plan to demonstrate an improved awareness of ergonomic issues and increased prominence on the scientific agenda as a direct result of the exhibition. By raising its profile in this way, we hope that people will be encouraged to become more informed consumers, employers and employees.