Ergonomics, investigation of human physical and mental abilities and the application of this knowledge in products, equipment, and artificial environments. The application of ergonomics can result in products that are safer or easier to use, such as a family car or food mixer. Alternatively, ergonomics can result in better procedures for performing tasks, from changing a nappy to welding. Ergonomists are scientists who have specialized in the study of the interface between people and the things they come into contact with-particularly artificial things.
Their work yields information that helps other specialists, such as designers and engineers; to improve the usability of the products they develop. Ergonomists are likely to be involved in the manufacture of vehicles (cars, aeroplanes, and bicycles), household products (kitchen equipment, toys, computers, and furniture), clothing (shoes, sportswear, and jumpers) and many other products. The driver’s seat in a car, for example, must be carefully designed to take account of the varying sizes of users.
The instrument panel must be designed so as not to confuse the driver by providing excessive or unclear information, being neither too faint nor dazzlingly bright at night, and so on. Both physiologists and psychologists can contribute to the design. Designing products to suit the bodies and abilities of people is not new. Even prehistoric people shaped their tools and weapons to make them easier to use. In the 20th century the search for efficiency of effort and the requirements of mass manufacturing have stimulated research. Psychologists and physiologists have extended knowledge of the workings of our brains and bodies.
In 1940 the British psychologist Hywel Murrell joined the Greek terms ergon, meaning work, and nomia, referring to management or organization, to christen the new science. More recently the term “human-factors engineering” has been widely used in place of the word “ergonomics”, since it facilitates a distinction between physiological, psychological, and sociological human factors. Today, designers and engineers rely on human-factors research, such as anthropometric data (body measurements) and experimental usability studies, to aid the process of making products easier to understand, safer to use, and better matched to the human body.
The elderly, children, and disabled people are special groups with which ergonomic analyses may be concerned. Anthropomorphism, attribution of human form or qualities to that which is not human. Specifically, anthropomorphism is the depiction of God in a human image, with human bodily form and emotions, such as jealousy, wrath, or love. Whereas polytheistic religions are mostly concerned with anthropomorphic gods, monotheistic religious thought generally holds that it is inappropriate to regard an omnipotent, omnipresent God as human.
In order to speak of God, however, metaphorical language must be employed. In philosophy and theology, seemingly anthropomorphic concepts and language are used because it is impossible to think of God without attributing to him some human traits. In the Bible, for example, God is endowed with physical characteristics and human emotions, but at the same time he is understood to be transcendent. In art and literature, anthropomorphism is the depiction of natural objects, such as animals or plants, as talking, reasoning, sentient, human-like beings.