Lab+5


 * Human scale ergonomics**

Ergonomics is the science that conducts research on the fit between people and objects. Making objects fit people’s needs is of the utmost importance because many of these objects entailing ergonomics issues are used on a frequent basis and thus can impact the human health in various negative ways if they have not been thought out well. This field has gained on importance especially in the field of office space, because as white collar America has grown exponentially, people started spending many ours in an office setting. As a result, the traditional looks of the office space was redesigned to offer the support needed for long hours of work.

The video Human-scale ergonomics (doesn't have commercial content because it doesn`t show any brand name) presents the idea of how an office chair, computer monitor, a desk light and a desk can all be improved to be more ergonomically sound for humans and directly juxtaposes it to the traditional. The office chair is enhanced with an extra back support that follows nicely the spine line, offering extra flexibility when a person stretches back and/or leans over to the front over the desk. Referred to as "the liberty chair" the new proposed design is easy to be lowered and raised to fit human need in an easy and enjoyable manner. Another thing involves a monitor that is automated to be moved all directions to adjust the focus and attention levels of the individual that is working in front of it. The light is given the same neat feature- ability to adjust the focus and move it all directions from and far from the monitor and/or papers a person is working on. If a person is working on a laptop, there is a little gadget that works like a base where the laptop can be put in and the angles of the screen can be adjusted to fit reading needs only or stage of tiredness. All these improvements contribute to a more organized office space where person is able to focus and prioritize task without having to compromise health or productivity.

Human-scale ergonomics speaks clearly about the direction many designers should take.There is various stages in the process of implementing ideas that need to take broader questions in consideration. Designers and engineers work with anthropologist that often examine from up close the use of certain products and catch the perceived flaws or the areas for possible improvement during this process. Today, besides having to be functional, esthetically pleasing and ergonomically sound products need to hold to much higher standards in order to appeal to customers. To the same extent, office space is one of the areas that is going to bring many more developers solutions as people are striving for more and more comfortable office space in the face of needs evolving and becoming more and more complex.

Frank B.Gilbreth was e person who lived at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and was interested in the field of management. He conducted the motion and fatigue study and applied it to the mechanics of brick lying. While working as a brick laying apprentice he noticed many flaws in the process of laying bricks. There was a very frequent stooping, walking and reaching needed to be done, more specifically one for each brick laid and one for each mortar. The result from this was tiredness negatively impacting the worker and thus resulting in inefficiency. His solution was a non-stooping scaffolding platform that was holding the bricks and the mortar at the same height and also close to the brick laying wall as the person who was working.

A careful inspection was performed in order to determine what the most efficient and good health preserving method of approaching this trade would be, the stooping for each brick and mortar was replaced by the new system Frank B. Gilbreth patented- a non-stooping scaffolding platform. A jack was gradually raising the platform to accommodate the height the person was at, thus the stooping, walking and reaching was eliminated altogether. The results showed that the number of times a person had to stoop was significantly reduced, the number of bricks laid was increased, thus the efficiency was greatly improved by not compromising the dynamics of working.