Design and Production Engineering&Mechatronics, Automation and Smart Materials

Biography

Biography: Mahmut EkÅŸioglu

Abstract

Product/system design and development requires an interdisciplinary approach considering the lifecycles of products/systems. Traditionally, designers focus on functionality and perhaps economic aspects of the products/systems. However, safety of a product/system is also a very important factor that should be considered by the designers and modern engineers are required for this. Human life and health may be at stake and indeed, it is a liability issue as well. Most accident analysis reports indicate that accidents are related to human errors. However, careful analyses of such incidents reveal the real cause: Most of the accidents are due to equipment failure or design error. That is, human errors mostly originate from poor designs and for the case of user experience: the product should be useful, usable, findable, credible, desirable, accessible and valuable. The design stage offers the greatest opportunity and most cost-effective time to anticipate, analyze, eliminate, or control hazards, and examine and include the user experience aspects. Ergonomics is an applied science and engineering discipline concerned with these. In this paper, a critical examination of safety and user experience principles of product/system design and development is examined with examples from ergonomics perspective.