Comfort and Design : Principles and Good Practice

Explores the comfort/discomfort paradigm. This work presents cases that demonstrate the success that companies from five countries around the world have enjoyed by engineering products with comfort in mind. It explores the costs and benefits associated with reducing discomfort and increasing comfort.

With so much attention placed upon comfort in the sale of many goods and in relation to musculoskeletal injuries, it is surprising that there is no generally accepted notion of comfort or discomfort that allow them to be easily incorporated into the design process. Because of this lack of a comfort/discomfort paradigm, industry also lacks a reference linking comfort and design.

Some designers have found that the best way to engineer comfort into their products is to involve the end-user in the process. Comfort and Design: Principles and Good Practice presents cases that demonstrate the success that companies from five countries around the world have enjoyed by engineering products with comfort in mind. The contributors discuss the theory behind ergonomic engineering and demonstrate practice by using case studies, presenting these elements together for the first time in one source. The text also explores the costs and benefits associated with reducing discomfort in the workplace and increasing comfort in product design.

Whether for designing products that will reap higher sales or for designing workstations that will increase productivity and reduce worker injury and discomfort, this book will serve as a guide to develop and implement effective design strategies to deal with comfort.