Globally, there is an ageing population resulting in an older workforce; in the UK it is predicted that by 2050 over one third of the workforce will be aged over 50. Construction involves heavy manual labour where working into later life may be difficult and natural, age-related decline is exacerbated by working conditions. Co-developing ideas with workers using participatory approaches can facilitate positive, healthy change in the workplace. The aim of this thesis is to explore ways in which construction workers jobs and workplaces can be made healthier, easier and safer to facilitate healthy ageing and longer working lives. An in-depth interview study with 80 construction workers explored their understanding of their health and wellbeing at work and ideas for improvement. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire identified a high prevalence of symptoms in workers of all ages in the knees, lower back, wrists and hands. Many of these symptoms were considered to be work related; interestingly, this did not affect Work Ability Index ratings. Workers had good ideas to improve their health and wellbeing at work; over 400 changes had been made or were being sustained by workers around improving manual handling, PPE, tools and machinery and health and wellbeing. A further 265 new suggestions were made concerned with education and supervision, facilities and human resources. In-depth focus groups with senior stakeholders (n=18) in three construction organisations explored barriers and opportunities for change. They were concerned about the health and wellbeing of their workers; were keen to hear their ideas; and identified poor communication within the whole workforce as a barrier to change. Opportunities to improve the situation included better feedback to workers, and interactive toolbox talks to encourage idea generation and sharing experiences. Finally, participatory workshops with senior stakeholders and trades workers (n=23) captured ideas for the development of a resource for the industry to facilitate longer working lives. Participants strongly suggested that the resource should facilitate communication between the workforce and supervisors by being visually engaging, strongly health-related and interactive, to capture and maintain the attention and involvement of the workforce.

La réussite des projets d’introduction d’innovations technico-organisationnelles au sein de systèmes complexes passe par une capacité d’anticipation des conséquences des évolutions programmées. L’ergonomie se saisit de cet enjeu en proposant des démarches méthodologiques visant à approcher l’activité future. Comment décrire, analyser, modéliser l’activité et un futur dispositif, pour les mettre en relation afin d’élaborer des visions de ce que pourrait devenir l’activité ? La question critique est celle de la projection de l’activité dans la situation régie par le futur dispositif. L’examen des démarches existantes montre que les caractéristiques des projets d’innovation et celles des situations concernées peuvent rendre ces démarches difficiles à mettre en œuvre. Une démarche alternative d’analyse prospective des innovations est proposée, qui comprend différentes étapes : caractérisation des dimensions structurantes de l’activité coopérative ; caractérisation des éléments constitutifs du futur dispositif et des grands principes sous-jacents à ces éléments ; mise en relation pour construire une vision des conséquences possibles de l’évolution du dispositif. Cette démarche a été mise à l’épreuve dans le cadre d’un projet d’évolution du dispositif de sécurisation des interventions de maintenance (consignation) dans une industrie de process à risques. Elle a permis de mettre en évidence la centralité des protocoles de coordination, qui forment un « écosystème protocolaire », et le rôle périphérique joué par certains mécanismes, tels que la production d’une conscience mutuelle (mutual awareness) / The success of the implementation of techno-organizational innovations into complex systems requires an ability to anticipate consequences of the intended evolutions. Human Factors take up this issue by putting forward methodological frameworks that aim at foreseeing future work practices. How can actual work practices and a future socio-technical environment be described, analyzed and modeled? How should these accounts be connected in order to envision future work practices? The critical issue is how to make a projection of actual work practices into the future socio-technical environment. An examination of available methodological frameworks shows that they can prove difficult to apply in cases where innovation projects, and the settings those projects deal with, present specific characteristics. An alternative framework to guide prospective analysis of innovations is proposed. Its different stages are: (i) characterizing the structuring dimensions of cooperative work; (ii) characterizing features of the future socio-technical environment and major assumptions underlying those features; (iii) making the connection in order to envision possible consequences of the environment evolutions. This methodological framework was tested in the context of a project that aims at improving the maintenance staff protection (tagout) socio-technical environment in a high-risk process industry. It enabled to highlight the importance of coordinative protocols, which shape an “ecosystem of protocols”, and the peripheral role of some other mechanisms, such as the production of mutual awareness

In the future, as world markets become more diverse, designers will be increasingly asked to create products for people dissimilar to themselves. Human issues, such as product pleasure, will also become more important as advances in manufacturing (enabling companies to produce high quality goods more cheaply) will mean companies will look elsewhere to achieve a competitive edge. These changes will affect designers who presently work with little or no user information. This thesis investigates the attributes designers need in resources that offer them an immediate yet broad understanding of users. The research presented in the thesis has a philosophical strand and a design strand. In the design strand, two mock up resources and a prototype resource are developed. These creations are used in the philosophical strand: the mock ups are used to provide focus while collecting opinions from participants and the prototype is evaluated at the end of the research as if it were a real resource. The thesis starts with a literature review; this review reveals that designers need to understand users' physical, psychological and social needs as well as their environments if they are to design appropriate products for them. It explains that designers find much ergonomics information too technical and not visual enough and reveals that no tools or methods exist that offer a broad and instant understanding of users at the start of the design process. Following this, the results from a set of interviews and a focus group are presented. These studies reveal that designers want both personal and general user information that is reliable, video based, contextual and authentic. The results also show that designers want a fast, online resource that allows information to be easily tagged, compared and shared. Next, the thesis describes the development of the prototype resource and its examination using a heuristic inspection. This resource is then evaluated by designers. The evaluation reveals that designers perceived that the resource would be of value to the design process and thought that the videos showing people going about their everyday lives and the virtual tours around people's homes would be particularly useful. The thesis concludes that designers want contextual user information presented as easily navigable video in an Internet based resource. In doing so, it provides an original contribution to knowledge.

Explaining incidents as systems is a fast growing area of safety scientific research. The misleading conception of naturalistic human communication in terms of 'objective information' remains a pervasive influence on systemic explanation of incidents, despite over a decade of methodological developments in the area. Currently, interested stakeholders are offered with few alternatives for analysing how information systems emerge naturally, and contribute towards the structuring of incident situations. Extant methods are also yet to be widely adopted by the practitioner community, and a research-practice gap has formed. In this PhD research, a new method of systemic incident analysis is developed, to counterbalance against the extant methods being developed in the area. The new method draws on insights from both Distributed Cognition, and linguistics research, in order to present a distributed means of doing systemic incident analysis. The new method de-objectifies the notion of information, to support analysis of how information 'flow' is constitutive of the formation of distributed cognitive systems. In embedding an intersubjective component into the core method design, we aim to increase the likelihood of systematic learning from incident situations. The incident analyst is required to explicitly relate past explanations of incident situations, in detail, to data and hypotheses from new incident situations. To increase the potential for theorists in the area to better account for the demands of incident analysis as practiced, data, insights, and method are contributed towards the bridges been built between research and practice. We first develop additional understanding of the practice of incident analysts from the patient safety background. Next, we provide a second new method of analysis, to allow research scrutiny of the empirical phenomena of using systemic incident analysis methods. This second method considers the detailed relationship: from the theory of the systemic incident analysis method into its practice as part of real incident investigation. This provides a new research instrument, for systematically examining how systemic incident analysis methods may afford or constrain elements of their practice.

Objective: The primary objective of the thesis is to advance proactive thinking in designing healthcare facilities for safety by constructing theory to bridge gaps between evidence-based design (EBD) and human factors/ergonomics (HF/E). Background: Adverse events are a pervasive issue in healthcare, with causes and prevention measures under increased scrutiny for the past 15 years. The physical environment can be an underlying condition of safety and healthcare (HC) facility design can be seen as a layer of defense in accident causation theory. However, HC facility design is complicated and complex, and the implications of decisions can be felt for decades. While architects excel at problem solving, they are not fully versed in healthcare work tasks, flow, and function, resulting in complex system interactions. Evidence-based design (EBD) is a process that uses research as a foundation for decision-making in HC facility design. While the EBD process acknowledges the importance of system factors, its focus is on understanding specific facility design interventions on outcomes such as safety, efficiency, quality of care, and satisfaction. HF/E focuses on humans interacting with a system with a goal of optimizing human well-being and overall system performance. Although HF/E recognizes the physical environment as a system component, the ergonomic definition of the environment lacks clarity and influences are frequently considered at a microergonomic level. In summary, EBD supports desired outcomes of a system through building design, while HF/E more often supports desired outcomes of the system through work design. Methods: The thesis leverages a grant to create a Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) toolkit for HC facility design using: (1) consensus-based methods to develop built-environment considerations for falls in HC facility design, (2) a mixed methods approach to test the SRA in hypothetical scenarios, (3) a mixed methods approach to test the SRA in real-world scenarios, (4) quantitative and qualitative analysis using an inductive and abductive approach to construct grounded theory to develop a core theme and a theoretical framework for proactively considering safety in HC facility design, (5) an extended systematic literature review to identify additional system considerations of the organization and people, and (6) established thinking to advance new theoretical frameworks to achieve the thesis objectives. Results: Two theoretical frameworks are proposed. The first framework, Safety as Complexity of the Organization, People and Environment (SCOPE) is based on the Dial-F systems model (Hignett 2013). The evolution includes: the definition of the ergonomic environment using building design as the most stable element of the system, identifying built environment interventions to mitigate the risk of falls (SCOPE 1.0); the addition of non-building design interventions of the system such as organizational and people-based conditions (SCOPE 2.0); and the integration of HF/E design principles to reframe thinking about hospital falls (DEEP SCOPE). The second framework evolves from grounded theory constructed through data from SRA testing proposing safe design as a participatory process to anticipate, participate, and integrate solutions. A participatory ergonomics framework (Haines and Wilson 1998) is integrated with a mesoergonomic framework of inquiry (Karsh, Waterson, and Holden 2014, Karsh 2006) to advance a theoretical framework of participatory mesoergonomics using the SRA and SCOPE content as inputs over the course of a HC facility design project to achieve safety. Conclusion: The gap between EBD and HF/E can be bridged using safety (falls) as a proactive consideration during HC facility design using theoretical frameworks. These frameworks address (1) the definition of building design and design considerations in the HF/E context and (2) integration of the EBD process with HF/E methods to understand interactions of the system.

The purpose of the work reported within this thesis was to design and implement a series of tests which better replicate the impact conditions experienced during a game, and allow for quantitative measurements of performance of various items of personal protection equipment (PPE). The sports of cricket and taekwondo were used as case studies. The aim was to improve on existing testing protocols making them more representative of real life, an approach that has not been previously attempted in the literature and so required design of multiple items of novel equipment. A representative cricket impact test was developed utilizing a ball canon firing a cricket ball mass at an equivalent bowling velocity of 31 m/s (70 mph) and a novel, freely suspended force acquisition system with embedded accelerometers from which the transmitted force values could be derived. Throughout the testing secondary variables of coefficient of restitution (COR), deformation and contact time were measured from high speed video footage to give further insight into the impact mechanics of the three tested leg guards. Contact times were in the range of 3 ms - 4 ms, COR between 0.38 - 0.50 and deformation between 45 mm - 52 mm. These results were compared against other benchmark tests to establish how close the representative test was to an actual human related ball-pad impact and to estimate human tolerance levels to impact. A rig to mimic a human on human kicking impact in taekwondo was designed to measure performance of the piece of body protection equipment used in training and competition, commonly referred to as a hogu. Primarily a mechanical simulator was designed to replicate the speed and mass of a human leg impacting during a roundhouse kick. A force acquisition system was manufactured, capable of integrating with the kicking robot functioning, with a human torso sized and shaped anvil, using a similar accelerometer based system of force measurement as that introduced in the cricket testing. This test was then used to measure performance levels of nine off-the-shelf hogus and protective training pads. Using transmitted peak force and time to peak force (TTPF) as indicators of protection, these values were found to range from between 0.5 kN 7.5 kN and 9 ms - 23 ms across the pads indicating a major difference in the protection provided.

Nowadays, the Human Machine System (HMS) is considered to be a proven technology, and now plays an important role in various human activities. However, this system requires that only a human has an in-depth understanding of the machine operation, and is thus a one-way relationship. Therefore, researchers have recently developed Human Adaptive Mechatronics (HAM) to overcome this problem and balance the roles of the human and machine in any HMS. HAM is different compared to ordinary HMS in terms of its ability to adapt to changes in its surroundings and the changing skill level of humans. Nonetheless, the main problem with HAM is in quantifying the human skill level in machine manipulation as part of human recognition. Therefore, this thesis deals with a proposed formula to quantify and classify the skill of the human operator in driving a car as an example application between humans and machines. The formula is evaluated using the logical conditions and the definition of skill in HAM in terms of time and error. The skill indices are classified into five levels: Very Highly Skilled, Highly Skilled, Medium Skilled, Low Skilled and Very Low Skilled. Driving was selected because it is considered to be a complex mechanical task that involves skill, a human and a machine. However, as the safety of the human subjects when performing the required tasks in various situations must be considered, a driving simulator was used. The simulator was designed using Microsoft Visual Studio, controlled using a USB steering wheel and pedals, as was able to record the human ii path and include the desired effects on the road. Thus, two experiments involving the driving simulator were performed; 20 human subjects with a varying numbers of years experience in driving and gaming were used in the experiments. In the first experiment, the subjects were asked to drive in Expected and Guided Conditions (EGC). Five guided tracks were used to show the variety of driving skill: straight, circular, elliptical, square and triangular. The results of this experiment indicate that the tracking error is inversely proportional to the elapsed time. In second experiment, the subjects experienced Sudden Transitory Conditions (STC). Two types of unexpected situations in driving were used: tyre puncture and slippery surface. This experiment demonstrated that the tracking error is not directly proportional to the elapsed time. Both experiments also included the correlation between experience and skill. For the first time, a new skill index formula is proposed based on the logical conditions and the definition of skill in HAM.

Objectif : L’objectif de ce travail de thèse était de proposer une nouvelle approche pour appréhender l’accessibilité afin qu’elle offre des opportunités réelles aux personnes de se déplacer et de se développer. Cette orientation de recherche s’est appuyée sur l’approche par les capabilités qui fournit un cadre théorique pertinent et original pour atteindre une accessibilité capacitante, c'est-à-dire qui permette le développement des personnes. Dans cette thèse, le cadre applicatif de l’approche théorique est la mobilité des personnes vieillissantes.Méthodes : Après une présentation de l’approche par les capabilités, un état de l’art sur l’accessibilité et la présentation du contexte applicatif de cette thèse, nous présentons trois recherches, qui utilisent une combinaison de méthodes (i.e. atelier, observations, questionnaires, projection situationnelle, technique des incidents critiques).Résultats : Les résultats de ces recherches permettent de définir l’accessibilité capacitante et de concevoir un modèle pour l’appréhender en ergonomie. Ce modèle met en évidence des déterminants de l’accessibilité capacitante tels que les ressources et les facteurs d’usage (i.e. les facteurs de conversion et les facteurs de choix). De plus, il décrit le processus qui peut amener à des activités contraintes et/ou empêchées.Conclusion : En conclusion, une présentation du modèle développé dans ce travail est proposée ainsi qu’une définition de l’accessibilité capacitante. Ensuite, les perspectives de recherches portent d’une part sur les recherches en conception visant l’accessibilité capacitante, et d’autre part, sur les effets à long terme de l’accessibilité capacitante sur les activités méta-fonctionnelles. / Objective: The objective of this work was to propose a new approach for the understanding of accessibility. Through this approach, accessibility is considered as a number of qualities of environments or activities providing real opportunities for development to people. This line of research was based on the capability approach which provides a unique and relevant theoretical framework to achieve enabling accessibility (i.e. accessibility which offers real development opportunities to people). In this thesis, the application context of enabling accessibility is older adults’ mobility. Methods: After a presentation of the capability approach, a state of the art on accessibility and presentation of the application context of this research, we present three studies, which use a combination of methods (i.e. workshop, observations, survey, situational projection, critical incident technique). Results: The results of this research are used to define a model of enabling accessibility and to clarify its position in ergonomics. This model highlights a number of determinants of enabling accessibility (e.g. resources conversion factors, factors of choice). This model also describes a number of process which can constraint or hamper activity. Conclusion: In conclusion, a presentation of the model develops in this work is proposed as well as a definition of enabling accessibility. The prospects for research focuses firstly on the research design for enabling accessibility, and secondly, on the long-term effects of enabling accessibility on meta-functional activities.Keywords: enabling accessibility, capability approach, freedom of choice, older people, mobility

Objectif : L’objectif de ce travail de thèse était de proposer une nouvelle approche pour appréhender l’accessibilité afin qu’elle offre des opportunités réelles aux personnes de se déplacer et de se développer. Cette orientation de recherche s’est appuyée sur l’approche par les capabilités qui fournit un cadre théorique pertinent et original pour atteindre une accessibilité capacitante, c'est-à-dire qui permette le développement des personnes. Dans cette thèse, le cadre applicatif de l’approche théorique est la mobilité des personnes vieillissantes.Méthodes : Après une présentation de l’approche par les capabilités, un état de l’art sur l’accessibilité et la présentation du contexte applicatif de cette thèse, nous présentons trois recherches, qui utilisent une combinaison de méthodes (i.e. atelier, observations, questionnaires, projection situationnelle, technique des incidents critiques).Résultats : Les résultats de ces recherches permettent de définir l’accessibilité capacitante et de concevoir un modèle pour l’appréhender en ergonomie. Ce modèle met en évidence des déterminants de l’accessibilité capacitante tels que les ressources et les facteurs d’usage (i.e. les facteurs de conversion et les facteurs de choix). De plus, il décrit le processus qui peut amener à des activités contraintes et/ou empêchées.Conclusion : En conclusion, une présentation du modèle développé dans ce travail est proposée ainsi qu’une définition de l’accessibilité capacitante. Ensuite, les perspectives de recherches portent d’une part sur les recherches en conception visant l’accessibilité capacitante, et d’autre part, sur les effets à long terme de l’accessibilité capacitante sur les activités méta-fonctionnelles. / Objective: The objective of this work was to propose a new approach for the understanding of accessibility. Through this approach, accessibility is considered as a number of qualities of environments or activities providing real opportunities for development to people. This line of research was based on the capability approach which provides a unique and relevant theoretical framework to achieve enabling accessibility (i.e. accessibility which offers real development opportunities to people). In this thesis, the application context of enabling accessibility is older adults’ mobility. Methods: After a presentation of the capability approach, a state of the art on accessibility and presentation of the application context of this research, we present three studies, which use a combination of methods (i.e. workshop, observations, survey, situational projection, critical incident technique). Results: The results of this research are used to define a model of enabling accessibility and to clarify its position in ergonomics. This model highlights a number of determinants of enabling accessibility (e.g. resources conversion factors, factors of choice). This model also describes a number of process which can constraint or hamper activity. Conclusion: In conclusion, a presentation of the model develops in this work is proposed as well as a definition of enabling accessibility. The prospects for research focuses firstly on the research design for enabling accessibility, and secondly, on the long-term effects of enabling accessibility on meta-functional activities.Keywords: enabling accessibility, capability approach, freedom of choice, older people, mobility

Cette recherche auprès de soignants d’un CHU vise à rendre compte, à partir d’une approche ergonomique, de la complexité de la transmission des savoirs professionnels en situation de travail, dans un contexte de transformations du monde productif. Elle propose un modèle de la « transmission professionnelle » en termes de « processus d’élaboration d’interactions formatives », en insistant sur leur émergence, leur déroulement et leur dynamique. Les analyses reposent sur la combinaison d’observations de situations de transmission, d’entretiens individuels et collectifs (« ateliers réflexifs ») centrés sur l’activité de transmission. Les résultats montrent que l’élaboration des interactions formatives repose sur trois composantes fortement influencées par le contexte productif : la combinaison de savoirs professionnels, la co-construction d’une relation entre protagonistes, et la conciliation entre activités de transmission et de production. Ils amènent aussi, en retour, à considérer la transmission professionnelle comme un « révélateur » des contraintes du monde productif dans lequel elle se déroule. / This research focused on the nursing staff in a university hospital. Its goal was to describe, based on an ergonomic approach, the complexity that characterizes the transfer of professional skills in work situations, in a context of transformations of the production world. It proposes to model the “transfer of professional skills” as a set of “processes of elaboration of formative interactions”, emphasizing the emergence, the sequence of events, and the dynamics of these processes. Our analyses are based on combining the observation of situations of transfer of skills, with individual and collective interviews (“reflective workshops”) focusing on the activity of transferring skills. Results show that the elaboration of formative interactions relies on three components that are strongly influenced by the context of production: combining professional skills, co-constructing a relationship between protagonists, and reconciling the activities of skills transfer and of production. Conversely, these results encourage us to consider the transferring of professional skills as revealing the constraints of the productive world in which it takes place.