Ergonomics concerns the design of equipment for human use at work. With simple equipment it may be feasible to correct design deficiencies on the basis of operational experience, but in complex systems this approach is too costly, cumbersome, time-consuming, disruptive and ineffectual and it becomes essen tial to apply ergonomic principles during the specification and design of the system rather than to attempt to remedy ergonomic deficiencies after the system is in being. Modern systems with extensive software may seem to encourage once again system modification in response to operational experience, especially if the facility to modify in this way is claimed beguilingly to permit flexibility or adaptability, but such changes may lead to unwelcome human error unless the associated skills and learning can be transferred intact.

Inspec keywords: ergonomics; display instrumentation

Other keywords: equipment design; ergonomic deficiency; display ergonomic

Subjects: Display technology