Ergonomics testing of consumer products 1. General considerations

This is the first of two articles describing how to test consumer products, with special reference to the ergonomics techniques employed. The procedures and methods described are appropriate for the comparative testing of competing brands of a given consumer product. This article covers essential preliminaries to the ergonomics testing programme. It discusses: brands to be tested, aspects of product use for detailed investigation, desirable product characteristics, general principles in brand comparison tests, and the place of physical tests in the brand evaluation programme.