ABSTRACT

In this chapter we exemplify and discuss a macro-perspective of people in nature and people and technology. We emphasize the need for service design to strive toward a model of harmony or balance between people-activity and the natural world. We feel this is a reasonable proposal. After all, nature itself is founded on a system in balance. Ancient so-called primitive societies lived, to a large extent, in balance with nature and its ecology. In our own understanding of the concept of ergonomics, we look simultaneously at ecology in nature and its inherent balance. The science of ergonomics focuses on human intervention often to the detriment of a natural balance. This is ergonomics from a macro-perspective. A more general understanding of ergonomics aims to create a balance between people as individuals or as groups on one side and on the other, technology from simple work tools to complex large technological systems. We take ergonomic theories and concepts as our springboard for service design.