Designing for unpredictable uses: A case study on cargo handling.

BACKGROUND: Activity ergonomics aims to include work variability into design process to enable various dimensions of use in projects. As design evolves with use, understanding its characteristics is essential to decipher real working requirements. However, situated design can be pluralistic and may...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Work Vol. 70; no. 3; pp. 861 - 874
Autores principales: Abraçado, Mateus Pereira, Duarte, Francisco José de Castro Moura, Béguin, Pascal Daniel, Fontainha, Tharcisio Cotta, Oggioni, Barbara Passos, de Almeida, William Silva Santana
Formato: case study pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. 2021
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Activity ergonomics aims to include work variability into design process to enable various dimensions of use in projects. As design evolves with use, understanding its characteristics is essential to decipher real working requirements. However, situated design can be pluralistic and may lead to different interpretations than initially intended. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims at understanding the relationship between the designing phase of work systems and the situated task design in high uncertainty operations. METHODS: In an ergonomic work analysis, cargo handling operations were observed at offshore platforms, followed by discussions with workers. Two case studies were selected for the intervention process to demonstrate how workers dealt with high uncertainty tasks on site. RESULTS: Situated task design exhibited three main characteristics: (1) the project emerges from the situation; (2) it has an intentional and original character; and (3) it is situated in time and space to solve local problems. CONCLUSIONS: This combination is the essence of a microproject, which is a concept proposed in this paper. The design must provide resources not only to execute work but also to redesign the task on site.