A sustainable human centered design framework based on human factors

Abstract

Since humans are creators and users of artifacts and processes, and are constrained by limited resources, a sustainable approach with human element in the center of the development cycle is vital today. Managing and understanding technical and analytical issues about human element in design process is a core challenge for practitioners to develop and improve design strategies that serves to accommodate human needs, abilities and limitations. Although attention has increased in recent decades, direct progress towards a sustainable product development is still not apparent. Methods for sustainability are mostly applied as post-processing activities to safeguard nature, however a pro-active approach is necessary. A sustainable Human Centered Design platform provides an alternative approach to deal with the degeneration of the ecology while providing alternative criteria for considering customer requirements. This paper focuses on improving product design by considering Human Factors as a medium to integrate Sustainability and Human Centered Design strategies. The emphasis in this framework is to introduce Human Factors aspects of product design early in the concept generation phase, provide a modular platform to allow integration of domain knowledge and technologies and to enhance the product development, and overall well being of human element in design cycle. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.