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BACKGROUND: Many occupations require workers to stand for prolonged periods, which can cause discomfort, pain and even injures. Some supermarkets in life provide a foot pad for checkout staff to let them stand on it at work, thereby reducing standing fatigue caused by standing for a long time. The inclined platform is the same as the foot pad mentioned above. That is, the staff stepped on it and relieved standing fatigue to a certain extent. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to analyze how the standing angle affects fatigue among prolonged standing workers and tries to find an inclined platform with a specific angle to reduce standing fatigue. METHODS: This experiment studied fatigue of the inclined platforms with different angles on prolonged standing workers, eight participants were selected to participate in the test. The plantar pressures and sEMG (Surface Electromyography) were used to collect the physiological information change of prolonged standing participants in the lower limb and waist. The visual analogue scale was used as a subjective method to measure the psychological fatigue. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The study highlights the relationship between standing angle and lower limb fatigue. The inclination of the standing platform has different effects on the participants under different time conditions. When participants stand on inclined platforms at 0°, 5° and 10°, the iEMG (Integrated Electromyography) values of the gastrointestinal muscle were not significantly different until the third sampling point (40 minutes). After that self-regulation of lower limb muscles is better when standing on an inclined platform between 5° and 10°, it has a certain effect on alleviating lower limb fatigue. This knowledge is crucial for the design of the inclined working platforms fitting the needs of prolonged standing workers.

(Dis)comfort research that has no information on behaviour of the participants can be considered as incomplete, as major influencing factors could be missed. For (dis)comfort research it is important to capture factors such as context, task/activity, posture, movement, (distracting) stimuli and time, as these factors have influence on the experienced (dis)comfort. Recording the behaviour allows for better evaluation of and comparison between studies, contributing to an increase of scientific knowledge on (dis)comfort.

Background Aircraft passenger comfort experience was previously defined based on its underlying thematic components representing passengers' perception of the environmental elements and their link to their concerns. Objective This paper aims to 1) identify aircraft passengers' attitudes towards their personal and shared space in the cabin environment during the flight which are linked to their comfort experience and 2) highlight passenger concerns associated with those attitudes. Method A sample involving 16 participants was conducted, collecting full accounts of their real-time flight experiences onboard commercial aircrafts, using questionnaires. Results Four types of attitudes were identified in reaction to participants' personal and shared space during the flight. Those were described as adjust, avoid, approach, and shield. Passengers' concerns associated with those attitudes were respectively: control, privacy, connectedness and tolerance. Conclusions It is concluded that passenger comfort can be improved once the identified concerns and attitudes are addressed in the design of the aircraft seat and interior. Design recommendations are provided accordingly.

Within this special issue, different aspects of the environment are studied: aspects that are distant from the human body, close to the body and touching the human body. Consequently, different human senses are involved in these studies as well as the different consequences and effects on the brain and human behaviour. This special issue also highlights many remaining questions about the effects and relationships between environments and human beings and the need for more studies and research. In particular, future studies are needed that address long-term effects and the effects of the combinations of elements which provide comfort or discomfort.

BACKGROUND The original Stolwijk model is not equipped with clothing, thermal sensation, comfort indices, individual characteristics and performance loss models. OBJECTIVE This study attempts to modify the model to include clothing, thermal sensation as well as the calculation of the percentage of dissatisfied as a result of general discomfort. The model is useful for the evaluation of thermal comfort in the built environment by professionals. METHODS Methods described in literature with regard of clothing, the research of Fiala as well as some in the literature recommended and validated adjustments, to improve the simulation of the skin temperature per body segment, are implemented in the here assembled Stolwijk computer model. Finally, for verification of the above adjustments, the model was compared with experiments conducted in the field of thermal sensation at various levels of temperature change. RESULTS By improving the simulation of the skin temperature per body segment and by adding clothing and thermal sensation, suitable for the assessment of steady state and transient thermal conditions, and fixed with this the percentage of dissatisfied, the scope of the Stolwijk model has become larger than it was before. CONCLUSION On the basis of the calculations and the experimental results, it was concluded that the adjusted Stolwijk model was suitable for the simulation of the thermal sensation under steady state and transient thermal conditions.

Background Passive posture variation in vehicles could enable variation in pressure distribution and muscle activity to counter physical fatigue from static seating resulting in more comfort. The difference in posture, however, should not lead to perceived discomfort and aspects of driving should be considered such as operating the steering wheel, pedals and vision in the mirrors. Objective This study sets out to find out how much postural variation occurs during the driving task and how sensitive is the human body to these changes. Methods The first experiment was user evaluation and assessed how and when the changes in seat configuration were noticeable to the human body. The second experiment evaluated the influence of varying inclination of the backrest and the seat pan by the rating of typical aspects of driving. Results The differences in seat configuration during experiment 1, were so small that there was no consistency in the ratings for the same configuration. The most critical feature that restrains the posture is the location of the rear view mirror. Conclusions The range-of-motion is defined as -1° to +1° for the seat pan and 0° to +1.5° for the backrest based on the results of experiment 2 because of the restraints of the driving task.

BACKGROUND Designers develop their basic competences during their design education and these competences are later amplified and refined during their professional career. Therefore, one could expect that the design processes of professionals and of student designers are conducted differently, and that these processes consist of different components (steps, actions, methods, tools, etc. used in the design process). OBJECTIVE The differences and similarities between the design processes of design students and professionals were studied. In addition the effect of the designers experience on the design process is studied. METHODS The design processes of seating products of 19 professional designers, 15 master students and 16 bachelor students were compared in order to understand the differences in the components they apply in their design process. RESULTS The results showed significant differences between professional designers and design students for eight out of fifteen of the components. The components for which differences were found were applied more frequently by professionals than by students. For six of the components significant positive correlations were found with the designer's experience. CONCLUSIONS There are significant differences between the design processes of design students as well as similarities. The differences amongst others related to the designers' experience.

BACKGROUND: There is a demand for interiors to support other activities in a car than controlling the vehicle. Currently, this is the case for the car passengers and – in the future – autonomous driving cars will also facilitate drivers to perform other activities. One of these activities is working with handheld devices. OBJECTIVE: Previous research shows that people experience problems when using handheld devices in a moving vehicle and the use of handheld devices generally causes unwanted neck flexion [Young et al. 2012; Sin and Zu 2011; Gold et al. 2011]. In this study, armrests are designed to support the arms when using handheld devices in a driving car in order to decrease neck flexion. METHODS: Neck flexion was measured by attaching markers on the C7 and tragus. Discomfort was indicated on a body map on a scale 1–10. User experience was evaluated in a semi-structured interview. RESULTS: Neck flexion is significantly decreased by the support of the armrests and approaches a neutral position. Furthermore, overall comfort and comfort in the neck region specifically are significantly increased. Subjects appreciate the body posture facilitated by the armrests and 9 out of 10 prefer using handheld devices with the armrests compared to using handheld devices without the armrests. CONLUSION: More efforts are needed to develop the mock-up into an established product, but the angles and dimensions presented in this study could serve as guidelines

In 2010 15.2% of the work force in the Netherlands works with a computer at another location than at the office or at the clients' location. 27% of the Dutch working population is not satisfied about the possibility to work at home and 18% is not satisfied on the possibility to plan your own working time. The case control study affirms what has been reported as effects of new ways of work: the experienced productivity by communication and the representativeness of the office interior are improved and attention is needed for workers that need concentration space and need to personalize their work environment. In implementing new ways of work these issues need attention. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.