MA4847 HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING

Assignment for Cognitive Ergonomics

(2015/16 Semester 1)
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

Please read and follow the instructions carefully.

Failure to comply may result in rejection of your report.

COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT:

This course is categorised broadly into 2 sections, namely

o (i) Physical Ergonomics
o (ii) Cognitive Ergonomics

Students are required to submit only 1 assignment, either from the first or second part of
the course

This assignment constitutes 30% of the course grade.

TEAM WORK:

2 students to work as a team.

Each team to submit a group report.

-----------------------------------------------Cognitive ERGONOMICS ASSIGNMENT:

These instructions pertain only to the assignment for Cognitive Ergonomics.

SELECTION OF PROJECT TOPIC:

Each group to work on a real product or situation of their choice.

Use designs or situations that you can observe, measure and appraise.

Use real life situations from your daily life.

Reports based on imaginary or fictitious products will be rejected.

Examples from lectures, past exam papers, or references will be rejected.

APPROVAL OF TOPIC:

To ensure that your team is on the right track, you are required to obtain approval for the
intended topic before proceeding with the project.

A generic list of the products/situations to be evaluated is given in Appendix A.

Please email the following to cheekoon@anthrolab.sg by 9 NOV 2015 (Mon).

(a) name of your team members;
(b) brief description of the specific product or situation to be evaluated; and
(c) brief description of how the assessments will be carried out.

Approval will be made through replies to your emails.

Approval is on a first-come-first-serve basis (based on time-stamp of email received).

EVALUATION & ANALYSIS:

Confine your evaluations to cognitive ergonomics.

Scope of analysis:
o Analysis to include at least two of the following aspects: (i) Attention, (ii)
visibility/audibility, (iii) Memory, (iv) Affordance, (v) Emotion
(Comfort/Discomfort/Like/Dislike), (vi) Fatigue, (vii) Safety

Specifications of the product/design:

o State the make, model and manufacturer, or time and place, where applicable.
o Brief description of its functions and working principles.
o Brief description of the tasks to be undertaken by users.

Identification of target users.

o Brief description of characteristics of the intended users.

Appraisal on cognitive ergonomic aspects of the designs.

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You must measure and photograph the product/situation. Evaluations on things

that cannot be measured/photographed by the group will be rejected.
o Use appropriate human factors methods to observe and record (e.g. with
photographs, videos, etc) the tasks being carried out by their intended users.
o Include quantitative measurements such as frequency, reaction time, and
accuracy (percent correct).
o Critical analysis is important, do provide specific comments on the design and
effectiveness of the product/situation.
o Substantiate your arguments with appropriate facts and figures.
o Compare the product/situation with other designs/approaches, where relevant.
Suggest improvements.
o Illustrate with sketches and detail descriptions.
o Brief discussion on rationale of improved designs.
o

REPORT:

Number of pages:
o Recommended length for the main body of the report is 10-15 pages on A4
papers.
o Report to be double-spaced and professional.
o Lengthy and superfluous reports are strongly discouraged. Marks will be deducted
for out of context contents.
o Supplementary information such as the papers reviewed, raw data collected and
detailed calculations should be included in the Appendix. There is no limit to the
length of the appendix, as long as the contents are related to the assignment.

Structure of report:
o Title page

Name of project

Name of team members

Statement of peer contribution (% effort by each team member)

o Abstract

1 page executive summary that covers all important points of the report.
o Introduction

Problem statement (including objective and significance of the project)

Literature review
o Product/design of interest

Specifications and functions of the product/design

Description of the intended users

Type and nature of the tasks to be carried out by users

o Appraisal methods and results

Scope of the evaluation

Description of the data collections and evaluation methods

Data and findings

Photographs, diagrams, drawings & illustrations are essential

o Discussion, conclusion and recommendations

Interpretation of the results

Comparison with other designs

Comments on your evaluation method

What conclusion can you draw?

Suggest improvements

Sources of information are to be properly cited

o Submission checklist

Ensure submission of and compliance to all stated items

Photographs:
o Photographs and pictures are essential for evaluation & record purposes.
o Use photographs to report or illustrate important aspects of the product/situation
and their effects on the users, including but not limited to, the following:

various views of the product or situation;

various views of user-product interaction;

various views of induced working postures; and

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close-up views of potential problematic areas.

All photographs taken are to be submitted with the report, including those taken
but not used in the report.

This is for verification of authenticity.

Please use digital cameras for all photography:

Submit original copies of the pictures, before modifications, touching-up,

cropping or re-sizing.

Pictures are to be saved in JPG format.

Pictures embedded into Microsoft Word, PDF, or other documents will be

rejected.

SUBMISSION:

Completed evaluation report to be submitted by 6:00pm on Monday 9 November 2014.

o 10 marks will be deducted for each day of non-submission after due date.
o Submission after 10 days from deadline will not be graded.

Ensure submission of all items stated on the checklist (Appendix B).

Feedback and other communication will be done through NTU email system.

Do provide mobile phone numbers and non-NTU email addresses on cover page for
additional channel of communication.

1 printed copy and 1 CD of the report is to be submitted to:

Mr Lim Chee Koon
Room N3.2-01-12
Tel: 97888537

Softcopies of the following are to be included in the CD:

o The entire report (including all its appendices).
o All the photographs taken.
o All the video clips, if applicable.
CODE

OF ETHICS:
Uphold your Honesty & Integrity
No mark for contents copied from the Internet, past reports, or other sources
Misconduct and Plagiarism will be reported to the school without exception

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APPENDIX A:

SELECTION OF PROJECTS
1) Decide on a project that your team would like to embark on.
2) Send an email to cheekoon@anthrolab.sg stating the following:
a) name (as in your student card) & email address of team members,
b) title of project;
c) short description of the actual products, designs or situations to evaluate.
3) If your proposed project has not been taken up, it will be assigned to you.
4) Approval is based on first-come-first-serve, using the time stamp of the email
received.
5) Project availability will be updated on MA4847 course site at NTUlearn.

Project Titles
1

A Car Navigation System

An ATM machine

Signage/sign system in public places

Pictograms

Consumer Smart Packaging for Food/Drug

A Waiting room (e.g. hospital, airport, bank)

A Display (e.g. shop, store, museum)

A vending/top-up machine

Interactive Toys/Learning for children

10

3D printing Control and Operation

11

Enterprise Automated System

12

Automated domestic/industrial task (requires human input and control)

13

Operation with Wearable Devices

14

A product/device for the aged, injured or infirmed

15

A system/product not covered in the list above (you need to specify the
situation in some details, and justify its significance)

Analysis to include (at least two of the following aspects):

i

Attention

ii

Visibility/Audibility

iii

Memory

iv

Affordance

Emotion (Comfort/Discomfort/Like/Dislike)

vi

Fatigue

vii

Safety

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APPENDIX B:

Submission Checklist

The Report:
Printed copy of the report
Soft copy of the report
In Microsoft Word (or similar) format
Not in PDF format
Burned in CD
Statement of Peer Contribution on cover page
Email addresses on cover page
Mobile phone numbers on cover page

The Pictures:
Complete set of all photographs taken, burned in CD.
All photographs taken, including those not used in report
Pictures in JPG format
Original pictures, not cropped nor modified
Pictures not embedded in MS Word or other documents

Attach this Checklist to your report

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