Further Questions and Answers on Healthy Industrial Design

Questions and Answers on Healthy Industrial Design

Part two: Further Questions about Healthy Industrial Design (HID™)

"Our sincere thanks to clients and other 'students of life' who raised their questions about the new process of Healthy Industrial Design"

Kevin and Alan Tye

2-1. What is the difference between Sana-nomics and Ergo-nomics?

2-2. Who coined the word Sananomics and what is the origin?

2-3. What is the significance of the posture = strength argument?

2-4. Does HID form another branch of human factors?

2-5. What is the structure of the new Design Practice Method?

2-6. What is the HID Library Classification System?

2-7. How are customer requirements considered?

2-8. What is the difference between the 'function' of conventional design and Healthy Industrial Design which refers to the need for products to have 'purpose' and to 'work'?

2-9. How do we consider 'the elderly' as a group and what are their problems?

2-10. If we design specifically for elderly people with their disabilities, do we not make products too exaggerated and functional?

2-11. How can we usefully group people in terms of the type of design they need?

2-12. Should young designers design in this new way?

2-13. The Alexander technique, Aikido martial art and Tai Chi a form of exercise have been mentioned as helpful to design. Can you give an example?

2-14. HID has a basis in physical reality, does this mean that men who are physically superior have some advantage?

2-15. How can it be demonstrated that body and mind are the same? How can the body state affect the mind? Why is this important?

2-16. How can the body tell me what I should do? Is it not a human advantage to tell the body what I want it to do?

2-17. 'Sana' means health and it also has the literal meaning cleanliness. So is cleanliness the same as health?

2-18. It could be argued that the important thing is for humans to have re-education in good use of the body, for example if we do not know how to sit with good body use how can we avoid mis-use when sitting on the grass having a picnic or travelling on a bus? HID products which encour-age good use cannot be available in such situations therefore is not learning good body use the most important thing and does not this argument make HID products unnecessary, for if one understands, is capable of, good use why should we need products specially designed for this?

2-19. What is meant by "Habitual Conditioning"?

2-20. What is the 'overflowing bucket' theory?

2-21. You mention the beauty evident in all nature. Is this not evidence as Mies Van der Rohe said that "God is in the details" ?

2-22. When I and my colleagues have looked through your designs we ask ourselves if this is the result of your HID design process or the fact that you are a good designer. In other words your designs are good because you are a good designer not because of your design process and think-ing. What is the truth about this?

2-23. Could it be that an ergonomist or someone might use your process assiduously and the resultant product be boring or lacking something?

2-24. Accepting that 'good design' must meet the needs of users, what is wrong with asking users what these needs are; why is the normal method of asking users what they need faulty?

2-25. Why is self awareness essential to the practice of HID?

2-26. What is the point of making designs suitable for good use of the body if the person using them is not aware of what good use is?

2-27. The stunning designs for super-cars and some one off craftsman furniture could not result from your design process which emphasises human needs, does this not point to something lack-ing in this process?

2-28. Isn"t the craftsman, who is the only one who can provide diversity and quality the ultimate designer? Mass production has resulted in a sameness and lack of diversity and quality as Professor David Pye described it. Even though this cannot be made cheaply enough for all to enjoy, neither can the best wine. It is a fact of life that quality cannot be enjoyed by all?

2-29. Should product designers be made more aware of quality and diversity and be taught to incorporate these into mass produced products so as to get nearer to the ultimate quality observed in craft design?

2-30. Most designers feel that their products should incorporate a relationship to art for example painting. Is this not the the high plane of design wheras function is basic or low level?

2-31. What is judgement other than personal choice and is it not wrong to criticize the personal choice of another human. One man's meat is another's poison so to speak?

2-32. Why is the New for Old Student Design Bursary of the Royal Society of Arts so important?

2-33. Surely the ecological, the planet, our grandchildren must come first, not Sananomic Design, not the individual?

2-34. If neither designers nor ergonomists have healthy industrial design matters included in their curriculum does this mean we must ask doctors for information about health?

2-35. Many designers use their inate artistic ability and inner feelings to make design, is this not design at a higher level than using a design process or method?

2-36. As a designer I am excited by the beautiful and restful proportions in your new studio which I guess are deliberate. Where do these proportions come from?

2-37. How are we to make a judgement about products?

2-38. From my research old people all say they want youth most of all. Why do you say they want health?

2-39. Why is the term "Industrial Design" used in the title Healthy Industrial Design?

2-40. Reading is natural and we do this with the head bent forward therefore shouldn't computer screens be low down in the position of a book so that they too are in a natural position?

2-1. What is the difference between Sana-nomics and Ergo-nomics? Ergonomics means work-law (erg = work; ergonometer = instrument to measure work). Sana-nomics means health-law. We do not want to play with words but the difference in reality between these two is of fundamental importance. These names also help to clarify for the mind what the difference is. It should be remembered however that Sananomics is only one facet of Healthy Industrial Design.

2-2. Who coined the word Sananomics and what is the origin? Whilst the arts use Latin and the sciences use Greek, these separations interfere with understanding what healthy industrial design is, BOTH an art and a science. Researcher Gerry Macdonald, on Alan Tye's request, coined the phrase Sana (latin)(health)with nomic (greek)(law)to epitomize the HID design method which combines art and science whilst at the same time being unusually descriptive of this health-law facet.

2-3. What is the significance of the posture = strength argument? Posture = strength expresses a principle. If one practices and studies the meaning of this one will find that posture does indeed = strength. As understanding deepens one also becomes aware that posture also = efficient movement, natural movement, healthy movement. It is vital therefore for the designer to know what this means when designing a product which people must use otherwise it will not be incorporated into the design. Postures can clearly be good or bad and as there are many body positions which injure or degrade the body, for example bending in a bad way to pick up a weight, it is no use at all just listing body positions, sizes or reach and so on as a basis for healthy design. For the same reasons the idea of designing to allow complete 'freedom' of movement fails to comprehend this matter. It is necessary to understand through practice what posture = healthy movement means. Only then can one list the body positions, reach and so on for use in the HID design process.

2-4. Does HID form another branch of human factors? Yes and no. Yes: in practice it incorporates a 'missing factor' of conventional human factors education and could usefully be incorporated provided the right teachers could be found, no easy task. No: it should not be a further branch of human factors because it is a total design method of which human factors is only a fragment. See question 2-5 HID Diagram. Ideally the designer needs to understand what he is incorporating and not just taking or copying this from someone else. To summarize, HID understanding and Sananomics, a facet of design concerned with health law, could usefully be incorporated with other human factors but the problem is, who would teach it?

2-5. What is the structure of the new Design Practice Method? Click image to enlarge. Antecedents are things which need to be understood before starting. Governing principles are like antecedents but more related to actual design. A = healthy human B = task or job C = habitual conditioning (of user) D = material means The balance of A,B,C and D is formed into several solutions, usually 3, ranging from radical to achievable now. This gives the client a choice depending on the marketing circumstances, it also shows the direction the product is likely to take in the more distant future and can therefore help to set direction and goals.

2-6. What is the HID Library Classification System? This is basically the document and book filing system of the HID Design Office and consists of a colour coded classification covering the A,B,C and D factors (See question 2-5 HID Diagram). At the material end it is amalgamated with the Cl/Sfb system of primary and secondary components, including existing products, and materials. In practice this means that when a designer is considering say something to do with factor A (Healthy Human), these subject matters will be found in the corresponding library section. Basically this speeds the design process by giving rapid access and clarifies the thinking and categorisation of subjects. It also makes obvious how information including books should be classified and where they need to be stored.

2-7. How are customer requirements considered? Customer requirements, sometimes called User modelling are conventionally examined by several methods (physical, cognitive, psycho-social, live user, scenario based and so on). HID introduces a new method referred to by Gulay Hasdogen in her dissertation (An overview of user and usage modelling in design practice) as 'Training for self awareness of the body' . What this means in practice is that the designer must be aware of fundamental health needs of the user. For example movement is required when we use products. Consideration of 'good' (natural/healthy/effective) movement during the design process strongly conditions the form of products which enhances the user, whereas failure to consider, or ignorance of, such movement results in the product deficiency which degrades the user when using the product

2-8. What is the difference between the 'function' of conventional design and Healthy Industrial Design which refers to the need for products to have 'purpose' and to 'work'? When people refer to 'function' in design they mean the basic working of that design. The function of a cupboard is to hold things in storage, a kettle is to boil water, a lawnmower to cut grass. A kettle can be given many forms, for example like a shallow frying pan or a tall jug, it can be powered in several ways, electricity, the sun or an open fire. It can be made of unhealthy or toxic material and require dangerous or safe movement to operate it and so on. In other words it can be a totally undesirable product and yet be 'functional'. The argument made by some that "It is functional, why are designers needed to embellish it?" or the reverse argument made by designers "It's functional but lacks aesthetics." ignores or fails to understand that by talking of the function of a product, or in the case of the designer the aesthetics, we confuse ourselves by our language. HID concentrates on what form evolves itself after deep consideration of its purposes. The resultant form recognises every subject or facet that should be considered. For example in the case of a kitchen cupboard its height would be fixed by asking the question "How high should a person reach?" (to avoid accident and for their health). No amount of consideration of storage function or aesthetics provides the answer yet this would be fundamental to the form. The difference therefore between functional design and HID is that 'function' has never incorporated the health of the user. See question 1-1 What is Healthy Industrial Design; 1-8 Is HID the same as 'Form follows function'; etc. etc.

2-9. How do we consider 'the elderly' as a group and what are their problems? The 1991 conference in Eindhoven University of Technology made it clear that the elderly as a group don't exist. In this context it can be readily understood that providing the elderly person is 'healthy' (See question 2-10) then the problems they have are also found in other ages of people. For example bending problems in elderly people are commonly found in office workers. Virtually all ages from school age, have postural deformities and problems caused by badly designed furniture, clothes etc. Design for elderly people will suit many ages provided the designer can recognise the needs of humans related to their health.

2-10. If we design specifically for elderly people with their disabilities, do we not make products too exaggerated and functional? There is a common confusion that people over 50 are somehow disabled. The most important reality to understand is that by far the largest, around 90% (source Eindhoven Gerontechnology Research) of elderly people (up to age 75) are 'healthy' and all they need is products which are designed to keep them so. Such products are entirely different from those designed for disabled people, just as a kitchen designed for a disabled person will be quite different to one designed for a healthy person.

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2-11. How can we usefully group people in terms of the type of design they need? Design for babies, children and adults is different but as seen in question 2-10), the majority of elderly people are not a special group but require the same design as 'adults' provided only that such designs can understand human needs and not carelessly, or ignorantly, disregard such needs. However, there is a group, between 75 and 85 years old, that requires a little more care and then a group who need more and more care, particularly after 85 years old. (Source Eindhoven Gerontechnology Research). It is necessary to create products and techniques to deal with these very old groups but the area of Healthy Industrial Design is first and foremost babies, children and adults; that is healthy people up to about age 75, beyond this age individually designed products are most likely to be needed to deal with the individual's specific problems.

2-12. Should young designers design in this new way? Experience shows that the simplest way to begin understanding HID is to consider that the design is for elderly people. This immediately focuses the mind to reject trivial, use-less and care-less conventional design. Unfortunately, young designers have difficulty contemplating age, "too far ahead to think about it". Those who try, project a conventional stereotype of retirement emphasizing relaxation. Source Design Age RCA. To these difficulties can be coupled a limitation due to lack of experience in life and design generally. However, it is important that colleges begin to teach, and young designers to practice HID antecedents and principles as a foundation to practising Healthy Industrial Design it they wish to escape from the limitations of conventional design.

2-13. The Alexander technique, Aikido martial art and Tai Chi a form of exercise have been mentioned as helpful to design. Can you give an example? These are subjects only understood by practice and cannot really be discussed with someone who does not already know. With this proviso, here is an example: After starting Tai Chi the realisation dawns that there is no end to the subject and therefore we become aware that we do not want to waste time and life. We wish to progress and avoid dead ends. (We discover we are seeking movement that is "natural" "strong" above all "effective". We realise this is deep not shallow, lasting not ephemeral, truth not lies, reality not fantasy, verifiable not mystical. Strangely it is the "easy" way.) If we, through habit or ego, want to look good or be beautiful or "work out" some way to make it "original", we simply become mannerist and ineffective. This wastes time and if we do not get to understand this we can never progress further. We have built a wall across our path and say "look a wall, we have reached the end." All observers of Tai Chi says it looks beautiful but this beauty does not have to be, cannot be, put into it. If we try to, we will be like the old man of Sung who loving his plants kept pulling them up a bit to encourage them to grow. Beauty is an inherent part which arrives without effort following concern for the true objectives. If you observe and think about it, products made on the looks good philosophy can never answer the real design problems, nor be anything other than ephemeral; they may be effective in exploiting human frailties or foibles but that is another matter.

2-14. HID has a basis in physical reality, does this mean that men who are physically superior have some advantage? This is a very interesting question. It is conventional to gloss over or conceal the real thing by saying that men are better endowed physically than women but this is a shameful, perhaps chauvinistic, explanation which defines and limits 'physical' to pugilism. 'Physical' first of all encompasses mind and body and senses not just muscle. Secondly the nature of our physical selves is profound and much wider than pugilism and muscle so it is incorrect to think of men being 'superior' physically to women. To generalise the opposite would be more correct. One of the best ways to understand something of (healthy) physical matters is The Alexander Technique. Many teachers of the technique have been surprised how bright and sensitive women are when learning it. This really does mean that women are admirably well endowed in physical senses.It has always been extremely regrettable that there are so few women industrial designers, a shameful loss of valuable resource. Particularly with the new requirements of HID there should be more women studying industrial design, however they should not allow themselves to be relegated to superficial aesthetic areas as has happened in the past, for example in Interior Design.

2-15. How can it be demonstrated that body and mind are the same? How can the body state affect the mind? Why is this important? The separation of body and mind is a convenience, a mere diagram of reality. Matthias Alexander has shown that when there is a 'thought' of doing something the body has changed physically. He shows that psycho-physical unity is required for good body use as one cannot separate body and mind. The 'thought' of a lemon makes the saliva flow. Other examples are mind balanced - body balanced and body balanced - mind balanced. Aristotle wrote "Mind and body I suggest react sympathetically to each other. A change in the state of the mind, a change in the state of the body, conversely a change in the shape of the body a change in the state of the mind". It has taken a long time to prove this wisdom scientifically correct. The brain is one of several organs, a gland which gives off at least 3000 known secretions which 'affect' the body. Being 'mentally' depressed, depresses the immune system. 'Physically' depressing our body impairs our thinking and direction. It is quite easy to show that most of us have faulty sensory appreciation due to years of misuse and obvious that 'a faulty instrument cannot measure itself' as Alexander said. Let us work to understand this for it is matter is of fundamental importance. At a personal level the question is "Is our basis for judgement, feeling and action faulty and if it is, what are we going to do about it?."

2-16. How can the body tell me what I should do? Is it not a human advantage to tell the body what I want it to do? There are two reasons why we must understand, listen to, the body and not just work out something in our heads and apply it to the body. The first is that we will fail, the second is that we will be happier and healthier. Here is an example: What would happen if you 'decided' you wanted to be a runner and did not know the following?:- Hips show two extreme types, one where the head is more than 2/3rds of a sphere, referred to by Bellugue as the 'speed' hip as the range of movement corresponds to an adaptation to speed of movement, second where the femoral head is stubby. This is the configuration of 'power' and greater strength but less range of movement and speed. Human hips can only work in a way to suit their nature. No amount of desire or exercise can change this so we should practice to discover what our bodies are saying and not send 'silly human logic' orders to it, nor make unnatural demands on its nature.

*2-17. 'Sana' means health* and it also has the literal meaning cleanliness. So is cleanliness the same as health?** Our researcher Gerry Macdonald explains:- Ancient Jewish thinking strongly related cleanliness with health. So, it appears, did ancient Greece, the goddess of health being Hygia from which we derive the word hygiene; and the Romans, the Latin for health being Sana from which, for example, we derive the word sanitation. We have a proverb "cleanliness is next to godliness" (circa 1750). Historically, cleanliness appears to be thought the same as health. A resurgence of this idea occurred in England around early 1900's (Ref. Objects of Desire by Forty) The expression Sananomics (health law) was coined to make the difference between the human factors investigations of HID and ergonomics easily understood. See question 2-1. In this new expression, Sana (Latin for health) is not intended to only mean cleanliness. Cleanliness in the body and environment, particularly in the freedom from pollution, pesticide residue and so on, is vital but only one facet of health as examined by HID. For example, ill health and dis-ease frequently results from our posture being allowed to become deformed and cleanliness can have no effect on this

2-18. It could be argued that the important thing is for humans to have re-education in good use of the body, for example if we do not know how to sit with good body use how can we avoid mis-use when sitting on the grass having a picnic or travelling on a bus? HID products which encourage good use cannot be available in such situations therefore is not learning good body use the most important thing and does not this argument make HID products unnecessary, for if one understands, is capable of, good use why should we need products specially designed for this? "All osteopaths are probably aware that driving is detrimental to the health of the spine." (Analysis of driving the modern motor car 1993 by Bryan McIlwraith DO MRO) Understanding good body use cannot prevent such injury. This example may explain why Healthy Industrial Design is essential in products and why re-education in body use, whilst essential, is insufficient on its own.

2-19. What is meant by "Habitual Conditioning"? The structure of the HID design process may be simply seen in the diagram (Question 2-5.) and contains four major areas which are balanced to produce an appropriate product. These areas are A- Healthy Human; B-Task or Job; C- Habitual Conditioning and D- Material means. It must be understood that this is a diagram and the four sections are not rigid compartments. Habitual Conditioning includes human characteristics and social influences. This area is referred to as 'psycho-social' by Gulay Hasdogen and this is quite a good description as it involves both superficial and deep, social and personal, controllable and uncontrollable influences. This section "C" uses major disciplines such as Anthropology, Ethnology, the science of human races and their relations to one another and their characteristics, Psychology and History. Design is strongly and often adversely affected by habitual conditioning some of which is alterable and some not. Examples which have occurred in this section: Certain non Caucasian people are flat footed. Adoption of western shoes leads to walking difficulties and makes them look strange or comical to us. They cannot help or understand this and are prone to exaggerate to show their disdain at being the object of amusement, so creating a further, negative, characteristic of their race. Red writing in China will cause an official to have a fit of rage; white colour means death there and black means death here. The direction a lavatory faces is critical to a moslem. Complaints have been made about the bad design, slipperiness, of toilet seats by people who stand on them! Is it easier to turn a valve to the right or left, should a switch be down or up to be on or off. Do these matters relate to good body use or habit? Much habitual conditioning is questionable though ingrained and decisions must be made as to whether the user can or will be able to understand the product. It is therefore necessary to consider the 'level' of the user and decide the benefits of the HID product against conventional solutions. Some products, for example a hard bed, might be beneficial but require certain understanding or practise by the user. It might be realised that skirts are better than trousers for men but at present this solution would be too radical for western business executives or even nations who not long ago were wearing skirts and may still do so in the privacy of home. The gaining and losing of habitual conditioning is a fascinating and sometimes poignant subject. Where conventional product solutions are degrading to health, every effort is made to redesign these to be enhancing but the designer must be clear whether solutions come from good body use or are simply habitual. This sometimes involves a re-education process for the user; the methods for succeeding in this examination of solutions also fall into this area "C".

2-20. What is the 'overflowing bucket' theory? This is a simple mental device which can instantly help one to comprehend some complex environmental and personal health problems and provide a means of avoiding problems related to products and environments. Imagine each human has a 'bucket' inside them which is almost full with all kinds of 'pollution', both mental and physical. Unhealthy food, bad habits, stress of work and travel, various genetic factors, wrong exercises, all keep this level high and dangerously near to flooding. When the bucket gets too full, one suffers dis-ease, and a "mixture" overflows, sometimes in physical form for example an allergy, pain or headache sometimes in a mental form for example making us despondent, irritated, generally unbalanced. Often of course both body and mind dis-ease occurs. It is confusing and frustrating that the cause of the overflowing cannot be exactly related to the problem it creates; this is because it finds our weaknesses. A postural imbalance (physical) may result in depression (mental); being worried (mental) may result in a cold (physical). We all know about fear resulting in bowel release! As some of the bucket content originate from things beyond our control, the advice is to do all we can to keep our level low, for example by not eating chemicals, breathing good air, developing the ability to avoid stress and so on. Just as the final straw breaks the camel's back so a small pollution can cause our bucket to overflow. One can see that most buildings are sick to a degree and suffer from Sick Building Syndrome SBS. They may be uncleanable, most are, and therefore distasteful, upsetting and unhygienic. The materials may not be healthy. A large building may be stressful and confusing and frustrating to find one's way around. etc. It is often difficult to diagnose or correct unhealthy buildings. The actual workplace, computer, seating, desk, lighting and environmental controls are almost certainly clearly faulty. Any and all of these things fill our bucket to overflowing. The workplace in an office, like the kitchen in a house, is used for long periods. As this is relatively easily changed and as this constitutes a major factor of dis-ease and filling of the bucket, this is the area one can most effectively improve. This is why Healthy Industrial Design was developed. From the 'bucket theory' one can also begin to comprehend HID antecedents such as separating mind and body hinders our progress; small things matter etc.

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2-21. You mention the beauty evident in all nature. Is this not evidence as Mies Van der Rohe said that "God is in the details" ? There is more than one question here. Mies Van der Rohe may well have meant that the real quality, special thing or "god" is in the details as a reminder to those many architects and teachers preoccupied with overall "concepts". In product design lack of attention to detail frequently ruins products. Only one 200th of the weight of coffee is the aromatic oil without which coffee is blackish caffeine water. Design is like that. The smallest detail can be the fundamental one. James Stirling once chided me one week for concentrating too much on the detail. The next week he chided me for concentrating too much on the concept. He was right. It is not one or the other, it is the balance. Concerning the notion of beauty in nature being evidence of god, the benevolent almighty. I look at it this way. Nature is 'natural' forces and not always 'benevolent' nor is it almighty or beyond destruction. Observation of nature related to HID is best understood through 'self awareness'. i.e. internal not external examination. (For example in the design of say an office system, kitchen or car it is desirable for the designer to enable the user to use their 'natural forces' or 'natural movement'. The designer cannot incorporate this if he does not understand what natural movement is. See question 2-3 'posture= strength'.

2-22. When I and my colleagues have looked through your designs we ask ourselves if this is the result of your HID design process or the fact that you are a good designer. In other words your designs are good because you are a good designer not because of your design process and thinking. What is the truth about this? I do not know the whole answer to this. What I can say is that when one goes through the HID design process something very exciting and significant occurs. The form and nature of the product is strongly conditioned by that process. My experience has convincingly demonstrated that it would not be possible to arrive at those forms without the process however good a designer one might be. This is because crucial information is uncovered by the process which the designer does not already possess. If a designer ignores this powerful influence on form they clearly will not incorporate it. There is no process or design procedure which can completely predetermine good design. What I mean by this is that the designer must always take a leap to the solution. The HID process enables one to take a bigger leap which is why HID designs are more substantial and less ephemeral than conventional design. Interestingly this means that a 'lesser designer' can often make a bigger leap than a 'better designer'.

2-23. Could it be that an ergonomist or someone might use your process assiduously and the resultant product be boring or lacking something? This question is theoretical and falls into the "six elephants on top of each other" category, words divorced from the real world. You cannot balance six elephants on top of each other so why bother to discuss it? First of all it takes a practising designer who is educated, or rather re-educated in self awareness, to use HID. This design process cannot be used by an "ergonomist or someone". This is because there are many facets of design outside the ergonomist's curriculum so any 'ergonomic' solution would not 'work' in the proper sense of dealing with all design matters. There can therefore be no real situation where the resultant design "works yet is boring". The fundamental objective of HID is real beauty and joy in products and the total dedication of a good designer is essential. See also question 1-29 in Part one :Questions about Healthy Industrial Design (HID™)

2-24. Accepting that 'good design' must meet the needs of users, what is wrong with asking users what these needs are; why is the normal method of asking users what they need faulty? If you ask people what they want, they will give an answer based on their experience. They would not be able to point to a product which had not been designed at that time as it is beyond their experience. This appears to be the danger of asking people for example whether they are comfortable, because what they think or feel is comfortable say in a bed, may not be, is likely not to be, a healthy solution. Both a new product and some re-education is required to satisfy human need and the design method which models design on the user's response is usually faulty due to either the user's inexperience or their lack of training/ practice in the subject. The more "democratic" one seeks to be in such a survey the more wild it becomes. "Customer clinics" as they are sometimes called only express the past. They are important in marketing for wants but not needs.

2-25. Why is self awareness essential to the practice of HID? Self awareness, by which we mean body mind practice, is not part of the curriculum of either designers or egonomists so no criticism is made of either of these professionals. However, without the information which self awareness provides the designer cannot understand for example the movement requirements of the body and what form her designs should take to enable body good use. Similarly without self awareness the user or the designer is unable to identify such good or bad points in a product. Self awareness if a fundamental part of HID training and people so trained can be consultants to any design project. See 2-24.

2-26. What is the point of making designs suitable for good use of the body if the person using them is not aware of what good use is? Industrial or product design, as opposed to individual or craft design, is for all people not a select few. It is part of the duty of care of a professional designer that her designs are as good as they can be. There are other reasons for making this effort. If a product is 'healthy' in use or designed to enable or encourage good use then the user is more likely to have good use. For example if an oven in a kitchen is at the right level and the door opens correctly, this will encourage better use than a low level oven with the door opening incorrectly. School furniture is a dramatic example of the importance of encouraging good use and the dismal failure of most furniture which does not. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the user has a duty to themselves to understand how best to use a product. This is helped by useful instructions, though these are very rare. There is also the possibility, for example in offices, to introduce good body use to groups of people. Some teachers of the Alexander Technique (qualified members have the qualification MSTAT Member of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique) offer this counselling service.

2-27. The stunning designs for super-cars and some one off craftsman furniture could not result from your design process which emphasises human needs, does this not point to something lacking in this process? A client came to my studio, he was a bright young man and arrived in a red Ferrari. It was all very exciting. "Tony, where did you get that." I asked. "I sold my house." he said. He had spent everything he owned on that car and did not know where he would live. This is a true story. We are easily intoxicated. We easily loose our sense of judgement, we become like an child, stamping our feet, we don't care what people think, we WANT it. We are all vulnerable and many times fail through madness or infatuation. "There but for the grace of God go I" is tempered by the thought "What a way to go!" Let us look at this situation. At its best, the astounding car is a joint ego trip by designer, engineer and manufacturer who just want to do it. They are like passionate artists in that sense and there is much to admire in them. At this highest level one could say they are not stylists. They are not following or imitating. When we look at the criteria for their design work we find they will have limited themselves to a narrow band of requirements. Staggering looks, power and refined engineering . They never intended this to be reality, to care about the environment, cost, health, life or death of user, practicality of transport, working in the car, climate, maintenance and so on. This fantasy has to deny that practicalities have importance yet, for example, only the very very rich can accept a car which needs adjusting after every journey, a car which cannot be left in any public place, which is uninsurable, uncomfortable, unbelievably expensive etc. The female super-model is similarly 'designed' to be fabulous looking, to be had or be seen with by the very very rich. Even to imagine being near her is an extraordinary delightful fantasy. Loyalty, love, honesty, friendship, reliability, long life, health, are immaterial, even boring. It is a fantasy. Craftsmen's furniture use fabulous materials and craftsmanship but their artistic route to design makes them care-less, for example, about the health of the user. This furniture is unsuitable for any serious use. The craftsman approach is nowadays a preoccupation with looks and more akin to a sculptor than a craftsman. "The Wheelwright" by Sturt wonderfully introduces us to the real craftsman of old whose objective is purpose not fantasy. The HID antecedent "Differentiate between reality and fantasy" reminds us of the need to constantly restore our judgemental balance and avoid confusing ourselves. It will also be found that fantasy, because it is incomplete, quickly disappoints if we ever get it. "What is beautiful?" asked Master Li to her Tai Chi class seeing some students were trying to look beautiful in their movements but only succeeding in establishing mannerisms. "Ordinary is beautiful" she said. "For example, ordinary eyes, just where they should be, healthy and bright." It may be original to put one eye on the side of the head, it would get plenty of press coverage or even an award or two for originality but it would not be beautiful, it would not work, it is not practical, it is not ordinary.

2-28. Isn"t the craftsman, who is the only one who can provide diversity and quality the ultimate designer? Mass production has resulted in a sameness and lack of diversity and quality as Professor David Pye described it. Even though this cannot be made cheaply enough for all to enjoy, neither can the best wine. It is a fact of life that quality cannot be enjoyed by all? This kind of discussion, the argument between product designer and mass production and craftsman and one off quality, has become rather obsolete and is missing a fundamental point. Let us take an example. A pair of shoes may be mass produced at �x or handmade at �20x. Neither is likely to be designed for the needs of the foot; neither understands Healthy Design. Does this matter? Over 95% of us have deformed feet due to our footwear and children are being born with these deformities. The feet are the foundation of all poise. Neither the designer nor craftsman has ever designed an appropriate shoe because they do not have the necessary information and are steeped in the old ways or lost in arguments about mass production versus quality art and emotion etc. In other words the old direction is wrong. It is obvious that craft quality can be wonderful but without understanding of purpose the shoe causes "dis-ease". To talk about material quality or emotion in these circumstances is inhuman not refined. We could have taken chairs or whatever as the example the result will be the same, the old methods and thinking have missing factors and are obsolete for the 21st Century.

2-29. Should product designers be made more aware of quality and diversity and be taught to incorporate these into mass produced products so as to get nearer to the ultimate quality observed in craft design? See 2-28.

2-30. Most designers feel that their products should incorporate a relationship to art for example painting. Is this not the the high plane of design wheras function is basic or low level? What is high and what is low is difficult to say and often a cause of confusion. Products, unlike art or painting, have clearly definable purposes. The fundamental purpose, or purposes, are not well understood. The HID process suggests it is the human use of the product (to enhance or at least not degrade the human user) that is fundamental. The word and the meaning of "use-less" is like a common sense secret of our language pointing to this fact. "Useless" has a deep meaning which we could "use-fully" apply to design thinking. If a designer ignores, shows "ignore-ance" or is ignorant of the purposes (of which there are always more than one) or trivialises the purposes by treating them superficially, she fails to understand the fundamental and therefore fails the human. Such design is therefore "bad" design. Design without deep understanding of purposes is not good design, never high level, it is crude and barbaric. It may help to consider nature, say a plant, imagine if its purposes were faulty or missing, if it was use-less and did not work, do you still want to call it beautiful or high level? No, the ordinary, the low level of the question is high level and the high level is low level, hence the confusion. Fortunately nature does not need to ask these kind of questions; neither should we.

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2-31. What is judgement other than personal choice and is it not wrong to criticize the personal choice of another human. One man's meat is another's poison so to speak? Judgement most frequently depends on understanding of the subject or matter being considered. Which wine do you like? This frequently heard question may serve to help us see through this maze. If we have little experience of wine our choice will be one wine, if we have more our choice will be different. Experience changes our feeling. If we go by what someone else says we do not know if it is good or bad, right or wrong advice. We must ourselves know if we are to make a judgement. If our judgement is faulty, either through faulty sensory appreciation or lack of understanding or experience, then our judgement will be "wrong". Do you walk with the right arm and the right leg forward or right arm and left leg forward. Is one or the other right or wrong or does it depend on personal choice? Complex and unresolved questions can frequently be clarified by "simple physical" examples. The question points to our fear and frailty but we have to be brave and find out what is right and what is wrong in order to make a judgement, to validate our feelings. See 2-35.

*2-32. Why is the New for Old* Student Design Bursary of the Royal Society of Arts so important?** The value of the New for Old lies beyond the brave efforts produced each year by new students of the Bursary. New for Old, inspired by the Helen Hamlyn Foundation to encourage the consideration of elders' needs, contains the invaluable essence of an irresistible new philosophy leading to a new process of design which ensures both human and commercial benefits instead of the mere exploitation of human ignorance. The poignant failure of design for elders is one segment of a huge design problem but seeking understanding of this segment can lead to understanding of the whole, hence the great importance of Helen Hamlyn's vision and this Bursary. From our birth to our death, dis-ease caused by babies' cots, childrens' school furniture, home and office workers' environments, as well as the mismatch of products to elders' needs is endemic in current design. A new direction is needed and New for Old,both in the meaning of new design for old people and new design in place of old design, provides a magnificent and profound vision of 21st century design. When we, design students and professionals, start this journey, and there is a long way to go, it becomes increasingly clear why conventional design processes will continue to fail us and what missing factors need to be incorporated into the designer and ergonomists' training. This re-education is the underlying value of New for Old.

2-33. Surely the ecological, the planet, our grandchildren must come first, not Sananomic Design, not the individual? This sounds right but in reality it is a balance. Having in mind our Antecedent "demonstrate your art" let us take some examples. Example 1. There are increasing numbers of old people. If one says that ecology must come first then the eco solution might be to kill them off. The HID solution is to try to sustain them and improve their independence and "usefulness". Example 2. Humans over 40 need twice the amount of light compared to younger people. The eco solution, save energy, would deny them properly designed light. The HID solution is to understand the problem and how to overcome it properly to enable the individual to 'work' properly. The body must be allowed to work is an HID Antecedent, the faculty is lost if it is not used. Example 3. An interesting extreme. We can double the amount of light on a work surface but we cannot double the amount of car headlights as this would blind the under 40's. A solution seems impossible. Ecologically we would keep the light on roads and cars to a minimum but actually our roads should be illuminated "like daytime" (say 1000 lux over the whole road). This would be fine for both young and old and is derived from the principle of putting the individual first. Example 4. There is a Swedish expression, "Spara på energin, men inte på tryggheten" meaning "Save on energy, but not on security." My conclusion is that HID is fundamentally sound and human and that ecological considerations do not come first.

2-34. If neither designers nor ergonomists have healthy industrial design matters included in their curriculum does this mean we must ask doctors for information about health? Our medical consultant Dr Dermot O'Flynn responds. "You, Alan, have shown that doctor's can seldom answer the kinds of questions you as a designer put to them. For example what is a healthy bed or shoe or kitchen. We must remember that doctors are ministers of disease not ministers of health. We know a great deal about diseases but not health. Surely we should expect groups who know about health to be healthy but doctors have an extremely poor life expectancy compared to ordinary people who know nothing about medicine. For example in USA a doctor's average life expectancy is 48 years but ordinary peoples live to 75."

2-35. Many designers use their inate artistic ability and inner feelings to make design, is this not design at a higher level than using a design process or method? Human adults have become faulty in their senses through lifetimes of body and mind misuse, furthermore many of us have imperfect sensory appreciation. Colour blindness is a very obvious, and common, example but there are innumerable others. Matthias Alexander expressed the truth that "A faulty instrument cannot measure itself" so any design simply based on feelings can usually be shown to be incomplete or faulty. There are two facets to this question. Firstly if one ignores or is unaware of available information the design will lack this information and or be careless even degrading. Secondly it is necessary to check out whether one's feelings are right or wrong, reality or fantasy, otherwise the design will again be degrading. Two examples may help. Say we are designing a teapot. This requires some understanding of tea and its quality. Simply making a shape or selecting a glaze based on one's feelings may well result in a product which is useless sculpture, lacking understanding of the quality aspects of tea and the demands they make on design. Say we are designing a keyboard. If we do not know of the enhancing movement possibilities of the hand and body then the result will be ignorant of these possibilities. It is very easy to check if a person or designer knows the difference between right and wrong movement. Experience suggests we should have and use knowledge and put feelings to the test before we make the leap to a design.

2-36. As a designer I am excited by the beautiful and restful proportions in your new studio which I guess are deliberate. Where do these proportions come from? I would only consider replying to this question to a practicing designer as without understanding borne of practice this would be mere theory and uselessly complex. Historically architects and designers have used proportions including the "magic Golden Section" (This is derived from nature, snowflakes, spiral shells, the body and so on. It has a strange irregular mathmatical proportion of 1 to 1.618.......) You can easily test the innate visual acceptability of this rectangle to humans and you can see this rectangle in many ancient and modern buildings. It was widely used in the Renaissance perhaps, as Wittkower suggested, because they saw it as the "measure of man". Le Corbusier's poetic book Le Modulor describes its origin in the human body and the value of this proportion. Much of his later architecture was based on it. For some of my student years I carried a measuring tape with Le Modulor on it instead of our normal measuring systems. Since developing the process of design I call Healthy Industrial Design I have gradually come to understand different concepts to create, or more accurately which result in, visual quality or, some say beauty, without being concerned with proportion. Although the Golden Section can be observed in nature, and in our own bodies, what has been used so far is an over simplification, a static module or geometrical proportion, which are two dimensional devices. From this has been created three dimensional forms for example by using the proportion on plan and then section or elevation (as Le Corbusier did). Healthy Industrial Design is fundamentally concerned with three dimensions, not with flat objects; in my experience it should be dynamic not static. This is not just another trick or idea but an effort to differentiate theory, fantasy, from reality. An example may help. People concerned with humans at work usually talk about "posture" but posture is by definition "static" and relates to a theoretical two dimensional position or frozen stance commonly seen in ergonomic diagrams. There is no such thing in reality as a "healthy posture" because humans are not static, therefore in Sananomic™ (Health Law) we are hardly interested in posture at all. A static human is a dead one and if posture is a diagram for something, we have to ask what is that something and does it have any validity in the real world of design. To talk about dynamic posture is a ridiculous contradiction. There is little point talking too much about this subject but it will be found that movement needs to be present at all times even if it is not visible. We need to get beyond the posture concept and the proportion concept. The characteristic quality I am seeking in design is not static, geometric, flat, two dimensional but three dimensional, dynamic, natural. When we examine this it means there is a "centre of gravity" about which other things happen rather than a series of proportions, so what you have observed, I hope, is that centre of gravity not any proportion. I do not think we can go much further with this with words but if we practice HID eventually this will all become quite obvious and we will say it is common sense.

2-37. How are we to make a judgement about products? The question is really this. Accepting that we are all faulty, is it possible to cut through our confusion and make a reasonable judgement which is unaffected by our faulty thinking and feeling? Is there actually such a thing as good or bad (design)? This terrifying complex question can miraculously be resolved as quickly as a ray of sunshine appears from behind a cloud. After that it can be examined at any depth. Wonderfully, the secret is already handed down in the language even though the reality has been lost to most designers throughout the history of design. Words are not reality is an Antecedent of Healthy Industrial Design nevertheless in this instance words enable us to progress even if we do not have understanding of the reality. If for the moment we can accept that a product which enhances us is "good" and a product which degrades us is "bad". That gives us a fundamental direction for our judgement of a design. The words Good and Bad have several meanings and in design one might talk about good; right; high level; deep; classic; or bad; wrong; low level; shallow; cosmetic; (Words with double or confused meaning, for example "stylish" or "functional" should be avoided.) Next look at the secrets of our language which are mercifully handed down to us in spite of ourselves: We recognise that something that is useless is "bad". A useless car or pen or knife for example. Consider that word "use-less"; consider the opposite, "use-ful". Up to a certain level any intelligent person can realise whether a product is useful or to what degree it is useful; also whether a product is useless. use-less (bad, low level) use-ful (good, high level) care-ful (good) care-less (bad) ease (enhances us) dis-ease (degrades us) meaning-ful (good) meaning-less (bad) After considering the above and putting it into practice, we are a long long way to being able to make a good judgement of design whatever our faults in thinking and feeling. We will have a beautiful direction or philosophy of design. All this is of course only the beginning, the crash course in the judgement of products; if we wish to add more quality to our judgement we must understand other things.

2-38. From my research old people all say they want youth most of all. Why do you say they want health? We are frequently confused by 1. words we use and 2. mixing fantasy with reality. In such cases it is difficult to see things clearly and we tend to go round in circles. One of the HID Antecedents is "Differentiate Fantasy from Reality" for example what we 'want' and what we 'need'. It is fantasy to want youth or anything which is absolutely not attainable as this can only cause us stress and pain. This is not helpful. You concluded based on your research that you should design clothes which makes elders "look youthful". This is the old design process and cannot arrive at an enhancing design solution.. The required process is to consider the reality and the needs of elders. This direction is real and valuable and enables elders to retain or recover their abilitites, their youthfulness if you like. Our research shows that elders, and as a matter of fact young people too, are hampered by their clothes. This is the cause of many accidents as well as discomfort and cannot be solved by an approach which is just based on style, on cosmetics, on fantasy.


2-39. Why is the term "Industrial Design" used in the title Healthy Industrial Design? "Industrial Design" is the accepted UK term to describe the subject of design of everyday products for series, or mass, production, as opposed to short run or craft production. In a survey in London, most people interviewed thought "Industrial Design" meant the design of industrial equipment or factories; in other words it is confusing and misleading but we use it until there is general agreement to change it. In the context of Alan Tye Design Studio's work, "Industrial Design" relates to design for series, or mass, production for any products interfacing directly with humans, whether a single item such as a handle or complex group of items such as a workplace environment containing furniture, computers, lights etc. We originally used the term "Human Interface Design" to describe our new design process.

2-40. Reading is natural and we do this with the head bent forward therefore shouldn't computer screens be low down in the position of a book so that they too are in a natural position? Unfortunately the assumptions of this question are incorrect. Reading is not naturally beneficial, often causes "dis-ease" and is normally unhelpful to body poise. Cricking the head forward, bending the neck, is a fundamental cause of "dis-ease" in the office workplace. This occurs when reading, writing and especially when using computer screens at low level, you can therefore dismiss any workplace design where you see this. Swedish research has found this the root cause of most office "dis-ease" and refer to it as "kontors nacke" "office neck". The Alexander Technique also demonstrates that the head neck relationship forms the "primary control" of the body/mind unity in other words, correct poise in the neck is of primary importance. Sadly the designers of laptop computers and computers built into desktops do not understand this. Much work is now done using computer screens and our experience is that in principle these should be positioned with the screen top at eye level with the 'natural resting position' of the eye falling near screen centre so that the head can be poised over the body and not cricked. Of course there are many other factors to be taken into account, such as the area, colour and legibility of the screen and distance from the eyes, whether the user types or hunts and pecks and so on. We humans are conditioned to adopt the head bent forward position when reading due to the form of books and limitation of the arms which are not suited to holding a book up in front of the eyes, so reading is an activity which requires intelligent understanding of body poise and balance as well as appropriate furniture. If you quietly and calmly test this by reading first with the head held vertically and then reading with head bent forward you should be able to sense which is enhancing and which degrading and that the head feels much heavier when the neck is cricked. Although we cannot change the form of books we can position our screens. This is just one facet of the desirable 'workplace' and to consider it in isolation is unbalanced as the workplace environment must be designed as a whole if it is not to cause dis-ease.

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