Bill Xu, M.S. candidate of Design and Environmental Analysis, presented his paper “Erglove: An ergonomic solution for wrist injury prevention” at IASDR conference in Manchester, the UK. The paper was published based on the course project “Design for ergonomic workplace” coordinated by Jay Yoon (DEA 4700/6700 Applied Ergonomics Methods). The project was financially supported by Clay, Inc.

Abstract: Hotel house cleaners are at high risk for musculoskeletal disorders due to strenuous and repetitive tasks: in particular, wrist injury is prevalent due to many combined hours of wiping in inappropriate postures. Erglove is an instant and long-term wrist posture feedback system that allows cleaners to gain awareness of their posture and change their behaviour as they wipe. An exploratory user study was conducted to compare the effects of using the Erglove feedback system versus no feedback on the wiping behaviour of a group of college-age participants. The results indicated that the perceived system usefulness was higher in the group with real-time feedback. The study findings provide initial insights into how design can influence usage behaviour in the context of posture improvement. These insights likely extend beyond the specific application to wrist MSDs prevention for hotel housecleaners and are applicable to a wide variety of everyday tasks.

Citation:

• Xu, T., Dewey, C., Vira, A., Aguiar, C., & Yoon, J. (2019). Erglove: An ergonomic solution for wrist injury prevention. The International Congress of International Association of Sciences of Design Research (IASDR), Manchester, the United Kingdom.