Why product design support for improved worker contentedness?

Abstract

It is frequently unrealised that emotions elicited through human-product interactions are not limited to the use phase. Indeed human workers also interact with the evolving artefact throughout distinct life-cycle phases such as manufacturing, transport and disposal. This paper reports on the work carried out in researching the influence of product design on the emotions elicited from workers who interact with the artefact during the manufacturing phase. The research results indicate that product design has indeed a capacity to influence the emotions elicited from life-phase workers. In turn the elicited emotions have been demonstrated to impact the performance of life-phase workers. This may contribute to longer product development time and increased costs. The evidence presented in this paper therefore justifies the need for the development of a design means which puts product designers in a better position to foresee the influence of design commitments on the emotions and performance of life-phase workers. The paper contributes towards the development of this design support means by establishing a number high level requirements to be considered.