because they do not themselves know what humans need for health. Unfortunately, ergonomists are in the same boat. For example, neither are taught what movements are healthy or unhealthy - what enhances, what degrades. When one considers that virtually all products and environments require human movement and that the form of the product is strongly derived form this movement, it helps to explain why most of them are inappropriately designed and form a mismatch or cause serious harm to us: We are all faulty. This means that scenarios in which the user is asked what she feels about a design are suspect. I am not decrying user scenarios for marketing purposes, but for example in the design of a bed, the fact that 64 per cent said this and 12 per cent said that is totally unrelated to whether the bed is good for sleep or not. The required information is, therefore, not obtainable from the design team nor the user. The fact that the designer has slept every night for forty years, does not enable him or her to design a bed. This is why Healthy Industrial Design was developed. HID is a process of design which evolved as it became clear that conventional design is frequently careless and fails humans. It is primarily for product design, but can be used for whole environments too (see photographs in this feature). There are several 'General Principles' that guide it: One of the most important is that products need to be, once again, designed to enhance the natural state of our body, not degrade it. If we eliminate the degrading we immediately get rid of huge swathes of current design. HID is not based on conventional anthropometrics and ergonomics, which statistically measure humans and tasks.
		It involves the 'natural' working of the human. A simplistic analogy may help - HID is not much interested in studies of what the body can do, but rather with what the body should do for the promotion of natural working health. For example, in a kitchen people can reach a certain height or depth, but should they? The new development in human factors is called Sananomic (health law) as opposed to ergonomic (work law). Another important 'law' of HID is the realisation that 'the product cannot cure'. A 'perfectly designed' chair will not cure a bad back or even prevent one without the user knowing how to sit. How to sit calls for a degree of re-education of the body so that both the user and the product work together. This 'choice of habit' does more than enable the user to work better. It opens up new worlds for people. Natural movement or body work is absolutely vital to our well-being, but the nature and quality of the movement is crucial. For example, many exercises are demonstrably unhealthy. Understanding what healthy movement involves		and incorporating this into product design is another important aspects of HID. The groups A, B, C and D in the diagram cover action/research - a phrase coined by Roger Coleman of the Royal College of Art's Design Age programme, to indicate that research alone is insufficient, on 'Healthy Human', 'Task or Job', 'Habitual Conditioning' and 'Material Means'. These sections are merged and balanced typically into three design solutions ranging from 'Achievable Now' to 'Radical'. Thus providing immediate and long-term solutions. Perhaps the most important thing this article can do is to stimulate all those involved in creating or buying design may really be obsolete and that HID could make a long overdue impact and, even have an inspiring effect. The benefits of HID are numerous and include its 'green' thinking. HID also avoids complaints from users and, importantly, in an era where everyone from top soap stars to international cricketers want to sue each other, it reduces the risk of lawsuits from injuries caused by products, even those considered well designed.