Prospective ergonomics for the design of future things

Abstract

This position paper gives an overview of the field of Prospective Ergonomics (PE) for the design of future products, services, processes, and systems. It presents its definition, links with innovation, characteristics, origin, history, goal, supports, and methods to help people imagine the future. In recent years, PE has been rediscovered, actualised and repositioned to give it greater scope and visibility, and stimulate research, training and professional practice in ergonomics for the design of future things. PE is an ergonomic intervention mode, on a par with Corrective ergonomics and Design ergonomics, upstream of design projects, where the ergonomist is proactive in anticipating or constructing future user needs and in creating future artefacts. PE is supported by four main fields of study: Ergonomics, Prospective, Future-Oriented Cognition, and Creativity, which ensures it is guided by three key principles: human-centred, future-oriented, and focused on creativity for innovation. PE expands the scope of ergonomics by going beyond the design of interactions with artefacts and including the creation of these artefacts in the first place. This has major impacts on research, training, and professional practice in ergonomics because we need new knowledge to work efficiently on the future, training should be enhanced in prospective, innovation, and new product development, and the professional practice is enriched by a new set of activities. In the conclusion we propose future research directions to pursue the development of PE.