Narrowing the Gap of Cognitive and Physical Ergonomics in DHM through Embodied Tool Use

The fields of human factors and ergonomics are systemic by nature, focusing on studying complex interaction between human and technology. However, the levels of explanation have resulted in physical or cognitive ergonomics. Modern understandings of human cognition and technology-mediated interaction, such as embodied cognition, activity theory and user experience (UX) is used as a frame of reference to analyze and illustrate the usage of a digital human modeling (DHM) tool in practice. In so doing, we try to narrow the gap between physical and cognitive ergonomics through embodied tool use. An identified core problem is to understand how a 2D devices should properly interact within 3D objects and manikins in a DMH tool that results in negative UX. The embodied concept of body schema clarifies the cognitive foundation for the negative UX. Some future work is presented, which could be beneficial for DHM, and, in the long run, promote a positive UX at work for various end-users of DHM tools.CC BY-NC 4.0 Funder: Knowledge Foundation and the INFINIT research environment (KKS Dnr. 20180167). The authors wish to thanks the two ergonomists at Feelgood for their valuable input. This work has been realized by the Knowledge Foundation and the INFINIT research environment (KKS Dnr. 20180167) who have financially supported the Synergy Virtual Ergonomics project (SVE), as well as partner organizations.