Tracy Yee's mother always thought her daughter would put her talent
for making people more comfortable towards a career as a flight attendant
or registered nurse. Needless to say, she was a little surprised when her
daughter went off to engineering school.
"I was always good at knowing what people's needs would be," says
Yee. "My mom always told me I should be working with the public, and in a
way, I am."
Yee is a human factors specialist -- an ergonomist. It's her job to
help design products and environments to be well suited to their human users.
"It only makes sense to me that the places where we live and work, the
cars we drive and the products we use should be made to work for people. After
all, who else would we be making them for?"
It sounds like a logical idea, but ergonomics is far from simple. Ergonomics
uses principles of psychology, engineering and physiology to find the safest,
most productive and user-friendly products and environments.
"One of the biggest myths about ergonomics is that anyone can do this.
Many people think moving their office furniture around to make it more convenient
makes them an ergonomist. To me, that's about the same as thinking putting
a Band-Aid on a cut makes you a doctor," says Yee.
The principles of ergonomics are incredibly complex, although often even
the simplest concepts are overlooked. Yee says people have become accustomed
to designs that don't fit the user. She believes we often blame ourselves
for not understanding something, when the problem actually lies with the design.
Yee encountered a good example of such poor design a while back. She had
rented a car and stopped at a gas station to fill it up.
"It was a fairly new car, so I looked for the lever to release the door
covering the gas cap. I was looking on the side of the seat, on the dashboard,
in all the logical places. Finally I decided I'd have to look in the
manual, and when I opened up the glove compartment, there was the lever I'd
been looking for."
This sounds like a minor inconvenience, but by the time Yee found the gas
tank lever, the lineup of cars behind her were honking and the attendant was
impatient. The experience left her flustered and anxious. When she got back
out on the road, she was not driving with the same level of concentration
as she had before.
"That is the point at which this non-ergonomic design became not only an
inconvenience, but a danger to the human user," says Yee.
Still, you don't necessarily have to be a full-fledged ergonomist
to work in ergonomics. Alan Cantor works to "further the interests of people
with disabilities in the workplace and in higher education."
So where does ergonomics fit into his career? Here's an example:
"One of my clients has cerebral palsy," he explains. "His most reliable
control site is his left foot, and he operates a computer entirely with a
single toe using an oversized, floor-mounted keyboard angled towards him.
One of the keys he needed to press every few minutes was located in the corner
of the keyboard. Whenever he reached for this key, he lost his balance and
began to fall out of his wheelchair.
"The only way he kept from falling was by jamming his toe under the monitor,
which was positioned just above the keyboard. I solved this problem by using
a software utility to re-map his keyboard so that ALL of the keys he needed
to use were within easy reach of his toe," he says.
Cantor also helped a call center employee who types with one finger and
has poor coordination to use a computer "at a speed comparable to her co-workers."
He taught her to use the computer without having to touch the mouse, and he
says that increased her speed by a factor of 20.
This type of user training is "almost always THE most important contributor
to the success of a workplace accommodation or ergonomic adjustment," says
Cantor. He says that in his work, he gets "more mileage" by modifying work
habits than by changing equipment.
"But it's hard to change work habits. It takes time, coaching, motivation....Some
employers are looking for quick-fix solutions, and in many cases, there are
no easy solutions."
As an environmental ergonomist, Yee researches and redesigns office workplaces
so they are convenient, safe and productive for the people in those environments.
"Many large companies are paring down, going to the minimum number of employees
and wanting them to be as productive as possible. It's my job to ensure
nothing in the built environment gets in the way of this productivity," says
Yee.
Yee says companies lose millions of dollars every year because of employee
injuries or illnesses that happen on the job.
"A lot of the time, people don't even realize the cause of their illness.
For example, you might find a number of employees with bad backs or necks
because of poor office chairs...or employees with respiratory problems because
of poor ventilation systems."
Just getting employees healthy and back to work doesn't mean the company
will achieve maximum productivity, however. Yee believes a lot of things in
the office environment can interfere with the work needing to be done.
"Take lighting conditions, for example. A number of studies have shown
flickering light conditions, like the ones achieved by the use of fluorescent
lights, often cause mental disturbances in the people who are exposed to them
for a long time. This can range from irrational feelings to depression," says
Yee.
Yee believes the design of office furniture, the level of noise in an area,
the temperature of the office and the convenience of office equipment are
just some of the factors that can have a huge effect on people's satisfaction
and productivity in their workplace.
Often when Yee begins a project with a company, the people who work for
the company don't see a problem with their work environment, so they
can't understand why an ergonomist is needed. After her ideas
are put in place, however, work absentee rates are much lower and overall
productivity goes up.
"When I have gone back and done follow-up research on my projects, I've
always been surprised with the level of success my work has met with," says
Yee. "It's very rewarding to know you are making a difference to the
way people spend 40 hours of their time each week."