04.21.2011
Rebecca Pezdek /
Design Research /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Interaction Design /
Usability /
Web & Software
Dr. Ryan L. Urquhart has established himself as a researcher, engineer, educator and speaker. We are excited to announce that he has joined HumanCentric as a Senior Human Factors Specialist. Prior to joining HumanCentric, he was employed by International Business Machines (IBM), located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. While at IBM, his focus was providing human factors support for IBM’s WebSphere and Tivoli software brands. He currently has 4 patents pending as well as numerous publications and technical reports.
His expertise is in the area of human audition, noise and performance, speech intelligibility, and human-system interaction. His formal background is in Industrial and Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Human Factors Engineering. Over the span of 10 years, he has applied human factors principles to a variety of domains and clients, both in government and industry. Prior to joining HumanCentric, the list of clients he has worked with includes: Thomson Reuters, JP Morgan Chase, Sony Ericsson, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Army Research Laboratory, to name a few.
Dr. Urquhart obtained his Doctoral degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a concentration in Human Factors Engineering. He received his Master’s and Bachelor’s Degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He’s a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), where he serves as chairperson of the System Design Technical Group.
Learn more about Ryan on LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/drryan
04.06.2011
Rebecca Pezdek /
Clients in the News /
Design Research /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
New Technology /
News /
Usability
Kroger’s new Advantage Checkout ScanTunnel was recognized as a top innovation at the National Retail Federation’s annual Big Show this January 2011. Throughout 2010 Kroger has been working with HumanCentric’s Usability Specialists, Industrial Designers and Graphic Designers in order to design all aspects of the ScanTunnel that are user-related. HumanCentric provided ergonomic recommendations for component layouts, customer and associate work flow analysis, product form factor options, and graphic signage in addition to observing shoppers and sales associates during the checkout process both with and without the ScanTunnel technology.
The final ScanTunnel design has resulted in a revolutionary new approach to Point of Sale and retail checkout that involves high speed imaging of bar codes or other identifiers to reduce labor costs and high speed conveyors send groceries through the checkout process in half the time.
06.14.2010
Barry Beith /
Design Research /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Industrial Design /
User Experience /
User Research
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is chartered with protecting the public from bad product design and recalls thousands of cribs due to the inability of some parents to follow directions. Now granted, often many designs and instructions for assembly are so bad as to be flagrant violations of all that is “design holy”, still three to four million cribs. And why, because a handful of children are injured, a smaller number die. Please don’t over-react. I understand the anguish of parents who lose a child or who are feeling guilty because their child was harmed or frightened. I get the anger they feel in this day and age over desperately needing to find the right scapegoat. However, the penalty seems to vastly outweigh the crime here and the solution seems to be all wrong.
Read more »
07.08.2009
Christina Mendat - Former Staffer /
Ergonomics /
Human Factors /
Transportation /
Usability
Being vertically challenged can pose a number of obstacles in my life. For instance, I can’t reach the top or the next to the top shelf in my kitchen cabinets. I can’t turn the fan on in the living room or my porch. I don’t hang pictures at the “appropriate” height for the general population and the list goes on.
One thing that was very important to me when purchasing a car last year was to find one that fit my needs:
- acceptable height of seats for entering and existing the vehicle
- ease of putting children in and out of the vehicle
- ability to pull down hatch easily without “jumping” to reach the handle
All of the needs above were those I have never been able to find in a vehicle that was large enough to fit four family members and a good deal of luggage. Some of the various cars I test drove included:
- Honda CRV
- Honda Odyssey
- Toyota Sienna
- Mazda CX-9
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06.29.2009
Elizabeth Mauer - Former Staffer /
Design Research /
Ergonomics /
User Research
Once upon a time, I convinced myself that I could learn to rip out my old floors and install new ones.
I grew up very traditionally where girls vacuumed (boring) and boys got to work with power tools (fun). So I never learned the ins and outs of what I generally call “being handy with tools.” I figured I could learn, though. Since they sell power tools to the general population at many home improvement stores, how hard can it be to use them? (Especially if the store’s motto is, “You can do it, we can help.”)
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