Abstract

Digital Human Models (DHM) form a class of ergonomic tools which accurately represent human user populations in their properties and characteristics, and objects or environments. DHM have become a common method for product design in various industries and provide functionalities which can be readily applied toward testing and predicting usability. The most common DHM tools which have been useful in usability studies, SIEMENS JACK, Human Solutions Ramsis, Dassault Systèmes 3DS Virtual Ergonomics, NexGen Ergonomics HumanCAD, Santos and imk EMA are introduced and briefly described. While DHM tools can be effective in studying usability, they form a software product which itself underlies usability criteria. Specifically, in integrated engineering systems environments, DHM usability becomes an important factor to consider. Thus, usability of the DHM tool will have an impact on the usability of the product design which is developed or investigated with a DHM. Three case studies show the application of DHM in three different industrial setups: usability of a hospital bed in a healthcare environment, usability considerations for the design of a vehicle architecture focusing on comfortable ingress-egress, and usability of a welding station in manufacture.