Technical Groups

PDTG User-Centered Product Design Award Winners

     The HFES Product Design Technical Group (PDTG) presented its 8th Annual User-Centered Product Design Awards at the 53rd HFES Annual Meeting in San Antonio. The awards, given for innovative and user-centered approaches to human factors and industrial design, went to Design Concepts, Inc., and Interface Analysis Associates. The dramatically different nature of the winning products shows that human factors/ergonomics principles and research can be applied across a wide range of products.

Craig P. Conner, principal and director of human factors at Design Concepts, accepted the award for the company's JohnsonDiversey ProSpeedT Floor Finish Applicator System. The applicator enables janitors to polish floors more productively and with less training and effort than required with other systems.

Anthony D. Andre, founding principal and project lead at Interface Analysis Associates, accepted the award for the Powerheart Automatic External Defibrillator G3 Plus. The company's work on the voice-prompt interface resulted in a higher rate of successful rescues, as shown by simulated testing.

     Connor and Andre each presented a paper about the development of their winning products at a well-attended special PDTG session. Paul A. Green, HFES president (at the time), presented the awards at the PDTG business meeting immediately following the session. Thanks go to PDTG members David N. Aurelio, Ali Berkman, Rich Buttiglieri, Hugh E. McLoone, Adam R. Shames, and Susan L. Spraragen, who diligently evaluated the nominations.

     The PDTG invites you to join this growing group, currently at 517 members, and participate in its activities.

     Look for a call for nominations for the 9th Annual User-Centered Product Design Award in early 2010. Contact Dianne L. McMullin (dianne.l.mcmullin@boeing.com) or Stanley H. Caplan (scaplan@usabilityassociates.com) for details.

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