ABSTRACT
Teaching ergonomics to undergraduate design students can be challenging particularly imparting qualities such as empathy, and teaching approaches such as emotional design (Moody et al. 2011). It involves introducing subject material and methods which are essential to design, but not necessarily recognised by the student as a core requirement when their focus is on aesthetics, styling, functionality and technology (Oak 2000). There are numerous design-orientated user research methods that can be employed by designers to understand their users (Dong et al. 2008). Bruseberg and McDonagh-Philip (2000) argue however, that designers tend to rely on a more intuitive approach rather than formal methods. Within an educational context, students should be equipped with the knowledge of formal methods and how they can be employed, even if once experienced they source these skills from elsewhere, and rely more heavily on judgment and intuition.
