Advances in Ergonomics in Manufacturing

This case study reports on the quality assessment of a drilling cabin (i.e., a dog house) by using a Participatory Ergonomics (PE) approach to the Heuristic Evaluation (HE) compared to an operators’ self-reported measurement. In the quality assessment, self-reported rating techniques are broadly used by Human Factors (HF) practitioners with the aim of investigating the subjective components (e.g., satisfaction, comfort and self-efficacy) of the operator work. In the Participatory Heuristic Evaluation (PHE), HF experts evaluate the system together with work-domain experts to extend the detection coverage of potential criticisms in the human-system interaction. In this study, a sample of worldwide drillers reported on the perceived quality of the “dog-house” by a questionnaire, while another sample of drillers evaluated the same type of drilling cabin performing a PHE. Results showed that self-reported questionnaire was associated to higher levels of perceived quality with an undervaluation of potential criticisms. Differently, PHE detected more system’s issues thanks to a knowledge exchange between HF and work-domain experts.