Toward a Theory of Man-Tool System Design Applications to the Consumer Product Area

Abstract

The man-tool system is important in many human factors areas but particularly so for consumer products where competition and other aspects are forcing particular attention to be paid to consumer satisfaction and tool performance. A first-order descriptive model of the man-tool system is presented together with a short description of a directed procedure for man-tool design which has been found useful in several different areas of consumer product design. It is essential that tool design be approached from the systems viewpoint, in order to provide a sound basis for research and design, leading to prototypes having a high chance of being successful for the user and/or the client with the minimum amount of iteration in the design process. The psychophysical sensitivity to moment-of-inertia as a component of tool “feel” is also presented, together with a discussion of some pitfalls in the necessary task of eliciting useful design words from the user.