News Release

MauroNewMedia's Jewelry Polishing Ergonomic Workstation receives User-Centered Product Design Award

Grant and Award Announcement

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

The Product Design Technical Group (PDTG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society congratulates MauroNewMedia on receiving the 12th Annual Stanley H. Caplan User-Centered Product Design Award. The winning product is the Jewelry Polishing Ergonomic Workstation, which solves critical ergonomic issues encountered by jewelers.

The Jewelry Polishing Ergonomic Workstation is built with features to help mitigate repetitive-motion injuries, improve airflow, and abate noise. The workstation is a cost-effective solution that increases productivity and career longevity and reduces training time for new operators.

"The recipients used classic principles of user-centered design," said Award Cochair Dianne McMullin. "The polishers' needs − gathered by observation, interviewing, surveying, and analysis of photo and video − influenced every phase of development."

"Ergonomic-related injuries are the most common workplace injuries for jewelry makers," said Charles L. Mauro, president and founder of MauroNewMedia, Inc., the user-interface design firm that led the workstation redesign. "In addition to the satisfaction of improving workplace conditions, it's an honor to be recognized for the development and design of the workstations."

The PDTG also awarded an Honorable Mention to the Cerner Corporation for its Emergency Department LaunchPoint, a software application that streamlines patient information according to the needs of emergency department physicians. The product increases patient safety and physician efficiency.

On-site user observation, weekly meetings with development partners, and iterative usability testing led to a product that focuses on reflecting patients' progression through their visit, with emphasis on time-sensitive phases to increase patient safety and physician efficiency.

"As technology continues to shape the environment of healthcare, it is imperative to design interfaces that empower users. Only through great design, and design process can this be achieved. A user centered design model, is the only option for creating complex systems, which clinicians rely on every day to care for their patients," said Bradley Scott, user experience lead at Cerner Corporation.

This year's winning product was announced on October 1 during the 2013 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. In addition to receiving a $1,000 honorarium and trophy acknowledging the achievement, the winners gave a presentation on the product and its development methodology.

The User-Centered Product Design Award recognizes outstanding and innovative product design and the consumer research and design methods used to develop and evaluate them. View information about past winners and judging criteria at http://tg.hfes.org/pdtg/awards/htm.

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The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is the world's largest nonprofit individual-member, multidisciplinary scientific association for human factors/ergonomics professionals, with more than 4,600 members globally. HFES members include psychologists and other scientists, designers, and engineers, all of whom have a common interest in designing systems and equipment to be safe and effective for the people who operate and maintain them.

"Human Factors and Ergonomics: People-Friendly Design Through Science and Engineering"

The HFES Product Design Technical Group is dedicated to developing products that are useful, usable, safe, effective, and desirable by applying the methods of human factors, consumer research, user research, and design research. Members of the group are concerned with traditional consumer products as well as commercial products,industrial products and medical products.


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