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The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Ergonomics in Design

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology via edX

Overview

Ergonomics is the application of scientific information about people in order to design products and systems so that they are safe, productive, comfortable and healthy for people to use.

People are of different shapes, sizes, strength, speed, judgment, skills, and capabilities. Hence when designing products the necessary aspects for task performance have to be considered. What is important is to fit the task to the person rather than fitting a person to a task so that a majority of the people are able to and like to do what needs to be done.

In this course, regardless of your background, you will learn the core concepts of ergonomics so that you can evaluate and redesign products to fit people. The course will focus on recognizing the workings of the human body so that products and systems are compatible with the structure of people and will allow you to be creative and to identify engineering solutions thereby improving human performance, reducing the risk of discomfort and injury when interacting with products

This course will allow you to get hands-on experience through a wide variety of demonstrations and case studies for you to grasp the concepts easily. With the knowledge gained, you can experience the excitement of creating your own products that will wow users whether it be for continuing education or just for knowledge.

Syllabus

Week 1: Overview and Introduction
Definition, history and applications of Ergonomics with real life examples

Week 2: Human-centered Design
Introduction to Design Thinking and design objectives

Week 3: Musculoskeletal system
Human body structure basics of muscles, bones and joints, and their working principles

Week 4: Human Movement
Spine and motion, vision and line of sight

Week 5: Posture-Strength relationships
Blix curve, Hand tool design basics considering ergonomics principles

Week 6: Equipment Design
Sports equipment design and Consequences of poor design

Taught by

Ravindra Goonetilleke

Reviews

4.2 rating, based on 11 Class Central reviews

4.4 rating at edX based on 5 ratings

Start your review of Ergonomics in Design

  • Anonymous
    In this course, you learn a lot about the fundamentals of what designing is supposed to do, which is basically fitting the product to the person rather than the other way around. I found myself very interested in the real-life examples of what these…
  • Anonymous
    This online course about ergonomics in Design was very helpfull for me because I'm an architect and my next step is to design furniture, so this course was incredible usefull for me, I learned so much things that I didn't know, is very complete because we saw important aspects about human body to understand the important of a good ergonomic design.

    Thanks for the course!
  • Anonymous
    Overall I would not recommend this MOOC to fellow students if they want to get more in depth knowledge about ergonomics because it might have been too basic. That does not mean it was useless, I was just hoping for some more.
  • Anonymous
    The MOOC was okay/ easy to complete. However, I felt as if it lacked the depth and details of ergonomics in design; most lectures focused mostly on the human body and not as much on the relationships between the body and products. I also think only using products and tools was limiting, when furniture and space (like pathways, etc) could have been discussed as well.
    Overall, nice as an introductory course, but I wish more detail was provided that related to products.
    Also, the lecture delivery was great, however the slides' and presentation quality could have been improved on..
  • Anonymous
    I'm an architect and I really liked the course, the professor gave really useful examples, the content is very complete and are many aspects to learn :)
  • Anonymous
    The class is good but you have to wait a lot of time to get review your workshops, the professor is very clear and use a lot of real life examples
  • Anonymous
    Very good course, good matirial to study, but few detailes of many tools one work with in different kind og jobs. Good coure, thank you.
  • Anonymous
    Really the course was very explanatory and managed to solve my doubts and will certainly be of great support
  • Anonymous
    This course is really good course design! The flow is started from the basic to deeply knowledge. I understand that design course is not easy to only MC questions and it is quite good to have a project assignment to help me to apply what I learnt but peer assessment is not the perfect solution if the course doesn't have too many paid cert students. I really appreciate the course team for this course design and development
  • Anonymous
    I audited this course in preparation for PhD level coursework in ergonomics, which I have no background in. The instructor was very top-notch and the content was great. I would highly recommend. The only issue would be the instructor's specialty seems to be hands and so the examples were about the hand, but I will be working with the back.
  • Anonymous
    The basic layout of the subject matter was well explained with necessary videos and practicals. Highly recommend this course for beginners who are willing to explore ergonomics.

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