Nominations for the fourth IEHF Ergonomics Design Award closed at the end of November last year, after attracting entries from a broad range of business and non-commercial sectors. Reflecting the importance of the award, the judging panel, who will now decide on the winner, includes senior representatives from the Design Council, Royal Society of Arts, and Which? Magazine as well as continuing to enjoy the support of the Chartered Society of Designers. Chairman of the judges is John Wood, Executive Chairman of CCD Design and Ergonomics.
From the full list of entries, the judges have been able to select the six which they deem worthy of being shortlisted. John Wood said: “We’re very pleased to see the extensive range of projects that have again been entered for the award this year; it’s a sign of the continuing and growing recognition of the importance of ergonomics in society and business today.”
The criteria for the judges are that winning entries must demonstrate a high level of ergonomics input to the design process, and that this has led to client satisfaction with the final product or design.
The 2013 short listed entries are:
- Anglian Water Mobile Manager programme: Logica entered a mobile application developed for their client Anglia Water. The application manages customer jobs, planned work and monitoring services and simplifies the day to day job of the company’s field engineers by giving them the right information at the right time. The aim of the application is to help Anglian Water fulfil its duty to maintain, repair and enhance their assets and deliver a 24/7 service for customers.
- Versiflor protective hood: DCA Design International has submitted their design for the 3M™ Versaflo™ S-655 Premium Hood. These protective hoods are designed to protect workers in many industries and have a broad range of applications within those sectors. The Hood forms part of a Powered and Supplied Air Respiratory Protection system that supplies filtered air to the wearers’ breathing zone allowing them to work safely and comfortably for long periods of time.
- Binom, multivolume shoe concept: The shortlisted entry from Studio Miklavc is a footwear concept called Binom which addresses the fact that the shape of the foot differs from one human being to another. The idea behind Binom is the use of an innovative technology for 3D scanning of feet to enable Binom shoes to optimally adjust to each individual foot, whether wide, narrow, with a high or low instep by offering four different volumes for each shoe size.
- Design Bugs Out commode: The DBO (Design Bugs Out) Commode has been entered by design business Pearson Lloyd. Its aim is to reduce infection transfer and has been designed to be easier and quicker to clean. The commode can be positioned for bedside use or as a portering chair to take patients to the toilet, where it can be wheeled over a static toilet.
- National Police Vehicle Livery: Police vehicle livery is the subject of the entry from the Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, for the Home Office. The idea is to use ergonomics thinking in the development of the UK’s first national liveries for police vehicles and police motorcycles. The design’s objective is to deliver real world impact by offering safety benefits, both in the UK and potentially internationally.
- muvman FACTORY saddle seat: “muvman FACTORY” is a chair that has been submitted by Verity Furniture and is intended meet the requirements for the furnishing of workplaces in production and assembly areas. The seat combines dynamic movement when standing and sitting to enable increased productivity with optimally healthy working conditions. It offers substantial movement and encourages workers to adopt a better posture whilst working.
John Wood said: “These entries will now come under much more detailed scrutiny of the entire judging panel. What we are looking for is a product that truly demonstrates the use of ergonomic thinking and puts people at the heart of the design.”
The winning entry will receive a cash prize and trophy at the IEHF conference award ceremony in April. They also have the opportunity to present their work at the conference, membership of the Institute for a year, and will have their design promoted by the Institute.
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