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International Conference on Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers

EHAWC 2007: Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers pp 163–168Cite as

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Guerilla Ergonomics: Perceiving the Affordances for Workplace Design

Guerilla Ergonomics: Perceiving the Affordances for Workplace Design

  • Lin Ye1,
  • Milena Petrovic1,
  • Marvin J. Dainoff1 &
  • …
  • Leonard S. Mark1 
  • Conference paper
  • 2309 Accesses

  • 3 Citations

  • 8 Altmetric

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 4566)

Abstract

A successful ergonomic intervention involves creating affordances that support safe, effective, productive and comfortable working conditions. Guerilla ergonomics entails creating the requisite affordances using objects that are readily available in the workplace. This often means using objects in ways not intended in their original design. As such this has the advantage of creating viable working conditions quickly and cheaply. Workers learn how to adapt quickly to new problems or changes in the work environment. Our research has shown that the perception of the affordance for an object’s intended use can interfere with a person’s ability to see other uses for the object. Practice in perceiving new uses for objects as well as compiling a directory of possible solutions may help overcome these limitations.

Keywords

  • Affordance
  • workplace ergonomics
  • ergonomic intervention

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Center for Ergonomic Research Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA

    Lin Ye, Milena Petrovic, Marvin J. Dainoff & Leonard S. Mark

Authors
  1. Lin Ye
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  2. Milena Petrovic
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  3. Marvin J. Dainoff
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  4. Leonard S. Mark
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    © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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    Ye, L., Petrovic, M., Dainoff, M.J., Mark, L.S. (2007). Guerilla Ergonomics: Perceiving the Affordances for Workplace Design. In: Dainoff, M.J. (eds) Ergonomics and Health Aspects of Work with Computers. EHAWC 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4566. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73333-1_21

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73333-1_21

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