Prospective Ergonomics

7Discussion

7.1. Introduction

From an educational standpoint, students and novice designers may not always easily comprehend the shift from a theoretical to a practice-based approach in design, and often lack the experience of practice in order to develop contextual and holistic understandings of what they have been taught. To bridge this gap between design theory and practice, it is necessary to develop prospective ergonomic (PE) mindsets among academics and practicing designers through modes of reasoning, methods and tools as social sustainability and service-oriented design thinking are becoming more important for developing innovative products and experiences. This implies that they should be engaged more frequently in mentorship and scholarship activities through collaboration with the industry, involving a broader network of stakeholders and targeting different levels of value innovation.

In this chapter, the earlier mentioned research questions will be discussed with respect to how innovation-driven PEs can be contextualized and reframed within overarching and subordinate fields of ergonomics and distinguished from strategic design and management.

Hereby, orientation, methods, practices and value are the criteria which will be used for discussing the similarities and differences between macroergonomics and strategic management, PE and strategic design, preventive ergonomics and industrial design, corrective ergonomics and detail design.

Finally, this chapter will conclude ...