Integrating Diversity of Users' Human Factors Into A Cornerstone Engineering Design Course

The instructors of the undergraduate cornerstone design course in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University aim to integrate diversity and inclusion into students’ design education. Our goal is to provide resources that students can use to understand human capabilities and limitations, so their designs are better suited to a wide range of users. The project was broken down in four phases: Phase 1 consisted of scoping deliverables and background research; Phase 2 included courseware development; Phase 3 employed the courseware into the Fall 2019 offering of our cornerstone design course; and Phase 4 reviewed and analysed student’s work to determine the efficacy of the courseware.

To initiate this effort, we focused on three Human Factors: vision, hearing, and strength. We created a process whereby students could assess these Factors quantitatively for specific interactions and use the assessments to justify specific functional requirements and constraints of their own designs.