What is Visual Ergonomics?

Abstract

Ergonomics is a broad discipline. Whilst often associated with the physical aspects of workplaces, such as the size of chairs and desks, ergonomics has three domains which can contribute to the comfort, satisfaction and safety of a person in their environment: physical ergonomics (e.g. workstation design), cognitive ergonomics (e.g. how we perceive and process information) and organisational ergonomics (e.g. job design) [1]. There are many highly focussed sub-specialties within ergonomics. Visual ergonomics is one subspecialty, and was formally recognised by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) as a technical committee in 2009. Although the technical committee has an obvious sounding title, visual ergonomics is more than a meld between the words “vision” and “ergonomics”. A definition clarifying the scope of visual ergonomics is necessary for communicating with ergonomists and other stakeholders around the world. When the technical committee searched for a definition, they could not find a formal definition to adopt. Defining visual ergonomics proved to be a bigger challenge than first envisaged, mostly because visual ergonomics has applications in a wide variety of industries (e.g. transport, healthcare), population subgroups (e.g. children, ageing) and visually demanding tasks (e.g. digital technology, manufacturing) [2]. After several years of consultation and discussion, ini-