Teaching usability to industrial engineering students

Abstract

Industrial Engineers determine a better way to do things and work in varied professional areas, which includes Ergonomics. Usability is a key topic in Ergonomics, related with the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of human-system interactions. Usability impacts companies’ productivity and economic success since, e.g. the occurrence of errors can lead to incidents and/or accidents; to do unnecessary operations increases the load and/or the gestures repetition, with potential for the development of work related musculoskeletal disorders; and users’ dissatisfaction can become a risk factor for the development of stress, with all the consequences associated with it. In this context the thematic of Usability was initiated in the Master program of Industrial Engineering. A learn-by-doing approach was introduced in order to assist students’ reach the defined learning outcomes. The paper offers some insights on the benefits of the adopted methodology, analyzes results of the last four years and discusses some observed trends.