Commentary from the Editor-in-Chief

Abstract

Dear Readers, What do a horse track, a place of worship, and a virtual reality environment have in common? All of these environments involve human beings and thus require diverse user experience designs based on user-centered design principles and thinking. Moreover, diversity gives rise to new design challenges and opportunities. This issue of Ergonomics in Design covers three very different studies, all relevant to user experience design, but each with a different, new, and expanded “diverse user” perspective brought into the design process to improve the overall system. In the first paper, Gestri discusses the design process for an Australian jockey vest that extends the concept of user experience and user-centered design to include a co-dependent user. Although the primary user (e.g., a jockey) remains at the center of the product innovation, the author emphasizes the importance of considering other users throughout the design process. In Australia, health professionals (e.g., doctors, nurses, and ambulance officers) attend race meetings to monitor the jockeys’ health and safety. Since the medical staff must be able to maneuver the vests for proper treatment (in case of an injury), the author considers them co-dependent users. Gestri contends that the current safety equipment designs (e.g., safety vests, goggles, and helmets) restrict access to the injured body regions (e.g., chest, face, and head), thus diminishing the medical team’s ability to provide appropriate care. Therefore, she proposes a new vest design framework incorporating feedback from jockeys and medical staff. Overall, I am impressed with the dependency-based collaborative design framework suggested by Gestri, and I am optimistic that this design process will be useful beyond developing new safety vests. The second manuscript further demonstrates that ergonomics is all about designing for diverse users. As part of their study, Nazeer et al. researched the design and accessibility limitations of existing ablution facilities in mosques in Arar, Saudi Arabia. Using the information gained in their research, they proposed new design guidelines. For example, to accommodate various users (e.g., elderly and disabled), the authors proposed two ablution platforms, a single-step and two-step design (depending on available space). The new designs were then implemented in four mosques in Arar. The authors then used a structured questionnaire (developed in Arabic, English, and Urdu) to survey daily mosque visitors, thus getting feedback from users of various ethnicities. Finally, the new design guidelines and the overwhelmingly positive outcome resulting from their survey findings were submitted to the Department of Mosques in Arar, which agreed to implement them when constructing new mosques. The third paper presented in this issue discusses the role of diverse user experiences in designing Virtual Reality systems. For example, the automotive, healthcare, architecture, and construction industries have substantially increased their use of Virtual Reality in the last decade; however, the inclusion of diverse user experiences in the virtual simulation is still not considered in the design process. To investigate this issue, Ciccone et al. reviewed the limitations of Virtual Reality systems, particularly addressing the software barriers and physical design constraints of those systems currently under development. Subsequently, the authors recommend that the next-generation systems consider accessibility for the user that has impairments (i.e., vision, auditory, and motor) while giving importance to ergonomics in the system design (e.g., the weight of head-mounted displays, accounting for interpupillary distance). The authors should be commended for emphasizing inclusivity for users in designing new Virtual Reality systems. I hope you enjoy reading the papers in this April issue, including In the News column featuring tidbits related to human factors and ergonomics. And as always, I want to thank the editorial board and the ad-hoc reviewers who complete the peer review process in a timely fashion, so we can disseminate the best content every quarter to our readers. Best regards,