Al-Nazer,+Ammar


 * Lab 5

Write three paragraphs to define the term 'ergonomics'. (3 paragraphs)** Ergonomics is a discipline that involves arranging the environment to fit the person in it. When ergonomics is applied correctly in the work environment, physical and visual discomfort and fatigue are reduced significantly.

Ergonomics is the scientific discipline that seeks to understand and improve human interactions with products, equipment, environments and systems. Drawing upon human biology, psychology, engineering and design, ergonomics aims to develop and apply knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, whilst protecting the health, safety and well-being of individuals involved. The attention of ergonomics extends across work, leisure and other aspects of our daily lives.

Ergonomics is commonly thought of in terms of products. But it can be equally useful in the design of services or processes. It is used in design in many complex ways. However, what the user is most concerned with is how can the user utilize the product or service, and will it meet his/her needs, and will s/he like using it. Ergonomics helps define how it is used, how it meets you needs, and most importantly if you like it. It makes things comfy and efficient


 * Lab 6**


 * Write four paragraphs defining the term Bodystorming**

Bodystorming is a technique used in interaction design or as a creativity technique. The idea is to imagine what it would be like if the product existed, and act as though it exists, ideally in the place it would be used. The proponents of this idea like to point out the fact that you get up and move, trying things out with your own body, rather than just sitting around a meeting table.

Bodystorming is where a scenario is set up and acted out. This can be in the studio, out on location with or without props. Bodystorming is conducting to take innovation practices beyond brainstorming by giving ideas physical form and acting out situations. The experience is designed to reveal how modes of exchange between people, places and things affect ideas in ways that scenario design and written descriptions cannot. The experience creates a model situation in which rapid iteration and understanding of underlying assumptions can be explored.

Bodystorming allows us to investigate different qualities that an idea may have when applied in a physical setting. For example a game reveals the tensions and pleasures of limits and rules and also reveals the kinds of relationships that occur through social and cultural interactions between people. Using props and take-home materials generated by the participants, everyone shares ownership of their experience.

Bodystorming helps build and test ideas and it is best carried out early in a project lifecycle. It works best after research has been carried out to understand better the issues surrounding a problem or specific needs of service users. It can be used with clients as a way of making touch points in a service more tangible or revealing assumptions about ideas, users and technologies.


 * Describe an issue that you would like to use bodystorming to research, analyze and investigate, and describe how you would develop a Case Theater scenario to do so**

We are surrounded by disabled people that we meet in our everyday lives. A disability is a condition or function judged to be significantly impaired relative to the usual standard of an individual or group. Types of disabilities include various physical and mental impairments that can hamper or reduce a person's ability to carry out his or her day-to-day activities. I am mostly interested in exploring people suffering from blindness, physical disability and cognitive impairment.

I will research, analyze, and investigate three types of disabilities: blind person, physically disabled individual (wheelchair), cognitive impairment to experience what it's like to be disabled. I decided to use bodystorming to articulate the difficulties disabled people might meet every day.

In order to understand the sufferings that disabled people go through in their everyday lives, I will use bodystorming to research, analyze and investigate the sufferings and hardships disabled people go through in their daily lives, especially when going out to run errands.

Bodystorming will help us experience disabilities ourselves, and gain a deeper insight into the lives of the disabled. How the disabled are treated at grocery stores and how long does it take for a disabled person to run their errands.

Using Case Theatre scenario, we can examine how it feels to do grocery shopping and the hurdles that face disabled people. Each member of the group will take on a role of a disabled person. We will want to explore how each one of the 3 disabled persons are seen by the non-disabled individuals surrounding them and the difficulty of the process from entering the store, identifying the settings of the place, purchasing items and exiting the store.