Ergonomidesign
Ergonomidesign, was renamed Veryday 2012. Ergonomidesign, formerly Ergonomi Design Gruppen, is a Swedish industrial design consultancy based in Bromma, Stockholm, with branches in Tokyo, London, Berne and Boston. Ergonomidesign has 55 employees and the CEO is Krister Torssell. The company is working with creating new business opportunities and strengthening brands for their customers through people-driven research, innovation and design. They work within Product Design, Interaction Design, Service Design, Design strategy, Innovation Support and Premium Research. Ergonomidesign specializes in physical, cognitive and emotional ergonomics, the three aspects of the human being that are being studied in the design process. This knowledge has been given the name Ergonomics³. Their user-centered innovation process has among other things resulted in more than 300 patents and has won more Red Dot Design Award than any other design firm in the world. On the 2008 ranking of leading design agencies in BusinessWeek [1] Ergonomidesign ended up as number 4 in the world.
History
The company started with the foundation of Designgruppen in 1969. The founders were a handful of designers with experience from companies such as AGA, ASEA and IBM. Among the first collaborations were customers as ESAB, Flygt, AGA and The Cooperative Union. Two years later the designer Henry Wahlforss and his “Ergonomidesign” moved in to the same location in the old glue factory in Traneberg outside Stockholm. Ergonomidesign specialized in working with disabled facilities and other user-oriented, inclusive design projects. The two companies got so intermingled that they decided to merge into a single company in 1979. The common focus was the profound studies of the user. The new company, Ergonomi Design Gruppen, moved a year later into a converted chapel in Bromma outside Stockholm, which still today is Ergonomidesign’s headquarter. The company was run as co-operative with a rolling CEO and general meetings.
As several other young design firms in the early 1970s, assistive devices would become an important product area for Ergonomi Design Gruppen. In 1972 two of the founders, Maria Benktzon [2] and Sven-Erik Juhlin [3], carried out deep-going ergonomic and physiological studies to investigate the grip of such as bread knives and saws. This led to pioneering achievements to raise the standards of facilities for the disabled.{{[1]}}. The result was a wide range of ergonomically designed objects that draw great international attention for RFSU Rehab [4], Bahco [5], BabyBjörn [6], Pfizer and many others. Many of the products are represented at the Swedish National Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Design Museum in London. One of the exhibits is the world's first angled kitchen knife designed for Gustavsberg in 1973.
Throughout the 1980s, Ergonomi Design Gruppen continued to work on user-oriented, inclusive products and work environments, with a heavy emphasis on systematic user research, stakeholder collaboration and sustainability. When the economy picked up in the mid 1990’s, Ergonomi Design Gruppen started to grow by employing young designers that added new, complementary skills meanwhile they shared the same fundamental values as the founders. Ergonomidesign has in the last ten years extended its reach by adding new services, entering new market segments and opening new offices. Today Ergonomidesign works within Product Design, Interaction Design, Service Design, Design Strategy, Innovation Support and Premium Research. Since 2001, the company name is once again Ergonomidesign. This year the company also hired the first CEO coming from the outside, Krister Torssell. Today the company has about 70 employees and has 5 branches around the world. The latest design studio in downtown Manhattan NYC opened in 2012.
Products and services
Ergonomidesign develops products and services in areas such as life sciences, consumer electronics, sports, children’s design, vehicle design, construction and tools and much more. In interaction design, an area where Ergonomidesign expands, they recently launched an application for the Microsoft Surface table, using Multi-touch and Multi-user techniques. The application, Music Quiz, is a game where 6 players compete in knowing songs and artists. You just roll the dices and start playing. And when you turn the table-top around, you enter the Music Store where you simply place you mobile phone on the table to buy music, concert tickets etc. or place your friends’ phones next to yours to share playlists. Their newest application to be demonstrated on the Surface table is the software “Helping Hands”, showing the future of integrated health care. The unveiling took place at the Medica/ Compamed trade fair in Germany in November 2009. Ergonomidesign envision how people will manage their health in 2015. The future scenario shows how, through embedded sensors in our clothes, wrist watches, necklaces, shoes etc. it will be possible to constantly monitor biometric data. These vast amounts of data is accessible to a network of ‘smart objects’ e.g. mobile devices and ‘smart’ homes, furniture and environments. This means that people's biometric data will be accessible everywhere, all the time, for the user and others that have been allowed access, for example doctors, family and relevant networks. The smart devices also allow the user to have constant access to contacts and services in the private network directory of doctors, fellow patients and other daily health care programs such as diet, exercise and prescription medicine.
With life science being the major industry for Ergonomidesign, the company has developed several medical devices during the years, e.g. Pfizers Genotropin Injection Pen, the ventilator Servo-i for Siemens/ Maquet and the asthma inflammation monitor Niox Mino for Aerocrine [7].
Ergonomidesign also designs equipment, work protection and machine constructions for industrial enterprises, aiming to reduce accidents and musculoskeletal injuries. The company is known for its award winning welding helmet Speedglas [8], owned by the American company 3M. Ergonomidesign has developed over 400 different products for Bahco, for example the recently released handsaw with exchangeable blades that won a Red Dot Design Award and an IF iF product design award 2009. Another example is the working gloves “Tegera Pro Vibration Control” for Ejendals. They received the Red Dot Award ”Best of the Best” in 2007 and IDEA, International Design Excellens Award [9] Gold Award in 2009.
One of Ergonomidesign’s oldest and most famous products is the drip-free serving pot for SAS from 1988, designed by Maria Benktzon and Sven-Eric Juhlin. The pot has been produced in more than 500,000 copies and is used by over 30 airlines worldwide. 1992 the pot was followed by an ergonomically designed service set and a juice jug in 1994.
Other award-winning and appreciated innovations are the phones series Doro Care where the designers have developed cell phones and other consumer electronics products to facilitate the use for seniors and others who requires easy-to-use products. For the sports industry Ergonomidesign has through their ergonomic and physiological studies in how the hand grips different objects, developed the bicycle handlebars Ergo and the saddles Terry Fly, for the German company RTI Sports.
One of Ergonomidesign's oldest clients is the company BabyBjörn, where collaboration goes over 30 years back in time. Håkan Bergkvist is one of the designers behind the original design of the BabyBjörn carrier, as well as many others of the products in the BabyBjörn collection. The story of the carrier began when Håkan came back from maternity leave in 1991, at the same time as BabyBjörn got in contact with Ergonomidesign to start a collaboration. In addition to the carrier Ergonomidesign and BabyBjörn have developed children stools, children's cutlery, bibs and more for young children and their parents.
Ergonomics³
Ergonomidesign has always been human-centered in their design and have over the years conducted in-depth research and study on how people use various products. In this way, Ergonomidesign have obtained important knowledge about how people act, think and feel in a variety of areas. The company is studying three different aspects of the human being: physical, cognitive and emotional ergonomics. This process has been given the name of Ergonomics³.
Physical ergonomics is how Ergonomidesign is committed to develop products, machines and environments with the utmost respect of how the human body works, so that they will be effective, reliable, safe and comfortable to use at the same time as they will reduce the risk of repetitive strain injuries. Cognitive ergonomics affects how people interpret and understand the outside world. Mastering cognitive ergonomics has become particularly important for Ergonomidesign when it comes to ameliorate digital interfaces, especially while developing complex, high-tech or automated systems. Emotional Ergonomics evolve around how to design products and services so that users will find them attractive, meaningful, engaging or safe to use. The field of emotional ergonomics is concerned with the emotional aspects of peoples’ interactions with products, services or systems.
Awards and recognition
Through the years Ergonomidesign have received over 180 national and international awards. Among the latest awards is the ”IF Product Design Award” from 2009 where Ergonomidesign won gold for the Doro Care Series, home electronics for seniors, and the Red Dot Design Awards “best of the best” for the Speedglas 9100 welding shield, designed for 3M. This year they also won an IDEA Gold Award for the working gloves Tegera Pro Vibration Control. In 2008 they got the Good Design Award Japan for the Baby Sitter Balance for Babybjörn and 2006 Ergonomidesign received the Swedish Design S [10] Award for the Ergon bike grips for RTI Sports.
2006 the journalist Susanne Pagold and designer Gábor Palotai wrote the book "Function Rules" telling the story about Ergonomidesign and their targeted work to try to improve the quality of life for people by creating best-selling products that are functional, inclusive, attractive and sustainable.
- IDEA, International Design Excellens Award, USA
- Design S
- Red Dot Design Award, Germany
- Utmärkt Svensk Form
- Good Design, USA
- Good Design, Japan
- European Design Price
- IF, iF International Forum Design, Germany
And many more.
Selection of clients
3M ABB Absolut Vodka Aerocrine ArjoHuntleigh Assa Abloy AstraZeneca BabyBjörn Bahco BRIO Cochlear Doro DuPont Ejendals Electrolux Elekta Etac Flir Gambro Gillette Haglöfs Hitachi Hultafors IKEA Ikonoskop Koenigsegg Lilleborg Novo Nordisk Nycomed Novartis Peak Performance Pepsi Co Pfizer Procter & Gamble Sony Sail Racing SAS Siemens SL (Stockholm local transportation) Telia Toyota Unilever Volvo Q-Med
See also
More information about Swedish industrial design: Swedish Industrial Design foundation, SVID [11]
Literature and sources
- ^ Svenska formrebeller, Historiska Media, 2008
Svenska formrebeller 1960- och 70-tal, Historiska Media, 2008
- Scandinavian Design, Taschen GmbH, Cologne, 2002
- Swedish Industrial Design, Norstedts, 1997
- Function Rules, Arvinius Förlag, 2006
- [12] Ergonomidesigns official website