Ergonomics Books

This book is an excellent resource for designing products that must accomodate various shapes and sizes of people. The charts provide a useful starting point for design. Some data, however, is quite old which dilutes it's relevancy. Also, do not purchase the instant, online access to this book. There are many dimesions and small details which can't be read due to the poor resolution of the on-screen viewer.

As a design student this is a very useful book. It makes assignments sound great when Information in this book is referenced. The drawings are very simple and easy to understand, however it is cramped full of numbers and stats (or 'data'). So u should only be buying this book if that's what u are looking for. It covers a diverse range of human factors in design like optimal reach, grip, vision length, working temperatures, noise, radiation, lighting, ect...

This is exactly what i wanted so i am extremely happy with this purchase especially since it was in high demand in my uni library.

I'm studying furniture design and this book will be extremely helpful for me. It gives tons and tons of measurements throughout the human life span. All kinds of positions, arrangements, etc. There is section on every age, even infants and elderly. It's also just an interesting thing to read, regardless of being an awesome reference book. I loved reading about how different abilities/capacities develop at certain ages. This way you can know when humans are able to do what. This can help better understand human's needs, in a physical and spatial sense.

Great book, just get it.

I found a handful of pages out of this book useful for space planning. Not worth fifty bucks unless you are designing equipment and products.

There's minimal reading in this book, which is nice since it's good for reference. The reading that it does have is very simple with bulleted paragraphs full of information that you can't get from looking at the diagrams.
Great diagrams for industrial design students (I got this for one of my classes), gives you the measurements, reach, sight and motion range, pretty much any numeric info you need to know for the 1 percentile, 99 percentile, and 50 percentile man/woman.
Also has nice chart of child development w/descriptions of what the ave. child can do at each age, as well as diagrams for the elderly (and in wheelchair). This book is essential if you are going for product design or interior design.

There is a definite demand for this handbook based on the price I would say. Honestly, it is wide-ranging in its scope of the IE function reflecting the diversity of Industrial Engineering in general. I like the concise format for that very reason. I am an old fashioned Motion and Time Study IE and the ever evolving nature of the field based on exponentially improved communications and technology at our fingertips has slanted and re-postured the nature of Industrial Engineering. This new slant is well represented here and is an indispensable source of reference for new IEs and the old timers like myself. I was recently told that an Engineer is an Engineer is Engineer etc. That may be but you still have to say current in your field. This handbook is an invaluable concise reference and a good starting point for whatever diverse topics you wish to review and investigate.

As an IE graduate I've first entered manufacturing and progressed to service management in the airlines, this is still the bible for my daily work reference. Topics cover enormous grounds useful in multi industries and yet each topic is given ample depth. Chapters are structured for easy reference and search. Even if you're not an IE, there is just so much you can use in the book.

A great reference book for engineers who would like to implement process re-engineering. Industrial Engineering tools & methods are provided in this book.

El voluminoso libro consiste en un compendio de diferentes artículos que cubren múltiples aspectos del campo de la Ingeniería Industrial, todos ellos descritos por autoridades en la materia (principalemente profesores de Universidad).

Justamente es el enfoque lo que hace ser un texto casi de introducción para cada uno de los temas tratados. La amplitud de los temas, son de tal calibre que o bien la descripción queda corta o bien el autor quiere incluir el máximo de detalle que llega a ser intratable como introducción.

Cada uno de los capítulos, son de por sí temas que merecen una descripción más detallada en libros por separado.

Para mi gusto, el mismo objetivo se cubre ampliamente en los libros del profesor Roger G. Schroeder (Operations Management), con una didáctica muchísimo más clara y con ejemplos más actualizados.

Carlos Ortega
2006-01-30

I've been a professional IE for more than 15 years and I bought this "manual" thinking that it would actually be a summary of the most important tools used in this profession, but I realized that it is not. It is way to general and it has lost most of the formulas and calculations that are required as an IE. There is too much wording and too little math. If you are a manager and you don't care for the how to, this is good for you. If you are in the field, and you need a quick reference on how to calculate things and how to implement them , you got to look for another book.

All I did was LOOK at this product on Amazon.com; I never even CONSIDERED purchasing it and had NOT placed the cursor anywhere near the checkout cart; I backed out of the page and moved on to other sites. Lo and behold, next thing I know, I get a confirmation email that the product was on its way, and my several efforts to stop the purchase, met deaf ears, blind eyes, brick walls...I am NO LONGER an "Amazon Fan" and do NOT have any trust in Amazon.

This book is extremely well done, and it can be applied to much more than writing. I think that the bulk of it applies to almost any kind of design, i.e getting to know the users, their needs, abilities, experience, etc. and then involving them in the design, getting feedback, establishing a partnership, etc. It's just the kind of up from the trenches stuff that managers would be wise to listen to but very rarely do. You can definitely sense the frustration the author has in technical writers being the band-aid applied to poor product design and cost-cutting, and she offers concrete alternatives when you have limitations.

I also love the recursiveness of it, in that she is writing the same thing she is also describing, so talk about reading between the lines! I could read it over and over, each time appreciating more and more how she followed her own advice.

This book is what I always look for in a book, because it starts from the beginning and ends at the end, with a clear trail of how it got there. The supporting introduction, glossary, index, notes and references are very well done.

I cannot tell you how many times, as a techwriter, and content developer, if you work on other people's stuff, edit the engineer's stuff...they think you are "Dumbing-it-down" or castrating it.

They make like they are working on the Next NOBEL PRIZE, and you dare touch their stuff!! How-dare-you! How could a lowly writer understand the full glory of their verbiage?
And the more obscure, passive and inpenetrable it is, the more it makes them look "more better smarter-est", the ole highschool "Baffle them with BS" ploy. If it's in pure ASCII text, even better! See, they are catering to the purest of Intelligencia...

So basically, the writer gets treated like a transcriptionist, or formatter, and god help you if you try to do your job.
And then the schmucks have the nerve to keep asking you back to help them, but keep undermining you.

Then they wonder why nobody likes to use their application. Hmmmmm! I wonder!

If you do any kind of writing for your job buy this book and read it cover to cover. With that said my review follows:

There are so many positives in this book that I will list the negatives first, there are few and very minor at that.

The cover has got to go. It does not represent the depth and wealth of the information inside. To be honest, it looked so poorly thought out and old, I felt the contents of the book must be too. Thankfully, I dropped my bias and was very pleasantly surprized.

The other negative may be my own personal preference, but I like the footnote detail at the bottom of the page, so when I see it I don't have to scoot to the end of the chapter to see what it is. This is how good the book was, I read all the footnotes and references too.

Marlana Coe has created a book that I hope not only do Technical writers from all over read, but Human Factors professionals too. As a fanatic-pursuer of documentation meeting its goal to communicate, this book says it all. The usability measurement on documentation is whether or not it allows the author to communicate to the reader and Marlana Coe shows you just how to do that. In fact, she shows you while doing that herself.

I bought this book because as a Human Factors professional, I find we do not practice what we preach. We review a product and come up with wonderful ideas to make it better and then proceed to hide that in a document that is not geared for the reader. Many technical reports, even the ones that only have a small group of customers, don't meet those customers needs. There are no pictures, tables and diagrams and worst of all no logical organization for the reader to create a structure around the information. The documents are geared for the writer to regurgitate data, not for the reader to absorb it. Granted this is not all, but too much of a majority in a group of people that should know better. Most human factors professional know, how to increase usability of everyone else's product but their own: the technical report they create on products they review. This book bridges that gap, for HF professionals especially. Yes, I'm including myself in this category (I did buy the book after all).

For all the rest of you, this gives you reasons for all the practices that good technical writers should use. From the amount of white space to use to the number of fonts and colors. There are also suggestions on organization and on construction of these documents. One section discussed content and the importance of context of usage. This is something, I never really thought of that much. (Oops).

Another thing the author has done was fashion a book on a technical subject and made it readable. This is something she also covers in her book. Her language is natural and she has not fallen into the trap of using technical words or ones that may escape the average readers vocabulary.

In a word: Fantastic!

Well, I just got this book. From the Preface: "This book is not a "how-to". This book is one level higher and deals with the cognitive psychological theory of designing and developing technical communication...". Thats not what I need. I looked for "how to' not for another academic book. Well this book is going to the return center.

There's a lot words, but no substance. Whenit takes you 3 chapters to get to the point where you can begin to move from generalities to specifics, well, maybe the reader should have been consulted in the design of the outline.

The authors should have paid more attention how they present this issue. Maybe the book was written in very tight schedule. The book repeated itself many times and was really badly edited. The content itself was ok, however nothing really new and not enough good reasoning. All these same concepts are presented in the other literature of UCD and HCI. I suggest Eric Schaffer's book.

From one who has been in the HCI/Usability field for 20+ years, finally a book that documents a sound and thorougly researched approach for interweaving the best-bang-for-the-buck usability engineering techniques throughout the design and development process. The UCD approach documented here focuses on solving real business problems. A critical book for those wanting to implement a sound user-centered design approach in companies.

I am a certified professional ergonomist(software specialist) with over 25 years experience. I wish this book had been publish 20 years ago - it could have saved many hours of work. In a very practical and clear way, this book presents a blueprint for how to integrate the UCD usability process into a project so that your product matches customer needs. The book gives clear step by step instructions on the methods for understanding your customer's requirements and developing a product that matches those needs. The book presents the process in a simple, thorough, cook-book way. Sample forms and case studies are plentiful. In addition to the process, it also covers practical issues such as how to sell UCD to your organization and the cost benefits of UCD. If you are a beginner you will have no trouble understanding the book. If you are an experienced practitioner you may find the material can save you some work. The sample plans, forms, presentations, and project templates alone are worth the price.

As a usability specialist for the past 14 years, I gravitate toward books that I can actually extract from and use their contents, rather than just reading descriptions of a process. The book emphasizes the importance of a multi-disciplinary team and steps us through the different phases of the UCD process. It also includes a great FAQ section. The CD that comes with the book includes movies addressing the various stages of a user-centered design process and many other resources. This is a must-have book for all those involved in developing products and services that people can easily use.

One of the best handbooks for ergonomic guidelines and anthropometric data. A thoughtful and well researched volume that I have used repeatedly in my industrial design career. Pheasant has created a compendium of data that designers can trust. The anthropometric data compiled for different populations is both relevant to today's multinational product markets and responsible in that aggregation of individual studies into a world-wide population anthropometry database is inherently inaccurate.

If you are a professional Product Designer, an Engineer or an Architect this book will be a very good source of Anthropometric data. It is recommended by leading ergonomics authors and widely used in Universities and research institutes. The problem with Anthropometric data is not finding it but how to use it, this books bridges the gap that exists between theory and practice. It is an excellent book.

This book is quiet information in regards to being specific about the parts of the body that they are refering to, for human factors sake. However, it completely excludes human scale and the dimensions ranging from infant to the adult male. There are no illustrations at all for easy reference and if you don't mind converting, everything is metric(it was published in Britian).

The model I purchased was described as a 'small' size. But I can't imagine what a medium or large bag would be. I doubt that I'd easily fit this bag in the locker of a spa I sometimes go to. I'm certain that I'll have to empty everything out, and collapse the bag before it would fit in the locker. And the material has a 'cheap nylon' feel. It would be fine for storing a lot of items in the floor of your closet, or if you were planning to take a trip around the world and needed to carry as much clothing, etc. as possible. But it's just too massive for a quick trip to the gym.

This series of Diadora soccer bags comes in a variety of colors and 3 sizes. I own the forest green/black bag in the small size.

This bag contains the following compartments:
* One Large inner compartment. The compartment includes a plastic "floorboard" to give the bag some structure. Some bags do not include this part, which makes a bag more difficult to carry.
* One small zippered pocket on one end. The pocket is somewhat small and is vented.
* One ball net on the other end. The net is a "bungie" type and will fit a Size 5 ball or smaller. It could also be used for wet clothing, etc.

Obviously you could use the bag for several sports, although with the ball net, its intended use is to carry soccer accessories. The bag appears to be well made and is constructed of decent nylon/PVC. The shoulder strap has a padded middle for resting on your shoulder and the strap is adjustable to various lengths. The overall size is approximately 17" long, and the bag's height and width is about 11" each. If you plan to keep a ball in the net, add another 10" or so to the length.

This product is best suited for a soccer player who needs to bring his uniform and accessories to school and the field. This bag will fit in a typical full length locker. It will not fit in some half length lockers unless you empty some contents and fold the bag a little.

Here's what I was able to put in it and my son was able to easily fit it in his school locker....

Fully loaded (and in need of a slight shove to get in the locker):
In the main compartment, I put:
* One pair of cleats, men's size 8 1/2
* Two uniforms 9home and away jerseys and two pairs of shorts)
* Two pairs of shin guards
* Two pairs of socks
* One pair of slider shorts with cup.
* Four water bottles, approximately 1 liter each.
In the outside pocket:
* A hand towel. It won't hold much more.

In the ball net:
* A size 5 ball.

All of these items fit easily with plenty of room to spare. Being that my son's locker, like most school lockers, is fairly narrow, he had to give the bag a slight shove to get it in the locker.
This bag comes in two larger sizes, however if you do need to put it in a locker, anything bigger than this one could be a nuisance to fit.

This bag is a good value, especially considering it is very inexpensive. It appears to be able to perform as well as, if not better, than other bags I have from other makers.

Very well written and provides a comprehensive introduction of ergonomics to the beginner.

I bought this book for my school text. It is comprehensive and well organised. Good for beginners...give it a try!

Shrawan split the topics up nicely, starting with tissue biomechanics and then on to specific body areas. There is a nice mix of industrial, experimental and epidemiological data presented. An enjoyable read to all from the student to the practicing ergonomist.

Written by 3 leading experts from Denmark's Riso National Laboratory, this book contains a deep and wide-ranging discussion of human-computer-interaction, especially with regard to the design of information systems. Included are chapters on work domain/task situation/ user profile combinations, methodolgies, ecological information systems, activity analysis, and field studies in libraries

If you are an organization in a developing or underdeveloping country getting into ergonomics for the first time, this text is for you. Most of the 100+ guidelines are tailored for the less advanced organizations in the manufacturing industries where there is still a whole lot of manual labor.

The text is pitched at the non-ergonomic sophisticated user. It is easy to read and understand.