Sociotechnical System Analysis for Identification of the Informational Requirements of Prosthetic Device Users for Upper Limb

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, more than one billion people on the planet have a type of disability. In Brazil, it corresponds to twenty-four per cent of the population, which creates a high level of social impacts, psychological vulnerability and dependence on others. In this context, Assistive Technology, including prosthetic devices, it is a resource that can be used in order to reduce those vulnerability levels. However, the product market of Assistive Technology is still limited, the few available products present high cost – contradicting Brazil’s high poverty levels, and the rates of dissatisfaction and abandonment of those products are quite high since these people have many specificities. Considering these aspects, the Integrated Product Development Process (IPDP) for Assistive Technology arises as a solution to design products that can match the expectations of the users. The main purpose is to present a fraction of the IPDP of a prosthetic device for the upper limb. It is a research of Informational Design which is applied tools of ergonomics and universal design. In the methodology, the social context of people with upper limb disability was investigated applying tools of Macroergonomics, such as Socio-technical System analysis to reach the personal context of users of prosthetic devices. Then, the Likert tool was applied to the collected data. In the results, the user’s specificities were found in order to use them to the product’s requirements, which ones can contribute to the design of the product. It is concluded that the tools of product development, ergonomics, Universal Design and sociotechnical system analysis have applicability in the IPDP since they enable us to study the specificities of users in order to apply them in subsequent phases of IPDP with the approach in Design for Assistive Technology which contribute to product safety and quality.