Tactility and ergonomics : A study of human perception and material of steering wheels in buses

Abstract: Many people consider design as how a product forms to be an attractive and qualitative product, and that the essential is the appearance of the product. However, design is much more than that since the vital reason is to satisfy the intended customer or user in many aspects. The first impression of a product is perceived by the vital sense, but the hand perception is also significant in order to create an impression. The aim with this report is to examine ergonomics and tactility of steering wheels in buses. In order to conclude thorough and accurate results, different phases have been done to get relevant data to analyze. The anatomy of the hand and its sense has been examined to get a wider understanding of what aspects that makes the sensation of a material good. The materials that have been used and analyzed in this project are natural and artificial leather with different textures. A total number of ten material samples with different structures have been analyzed, five of artificial leather and five of natural leather. The material samples have been analyzed and evaluated using subjective and objective methods. The structure of the surfaces and how the different samples were perceived was evaluated by test persons who stated their subjective opinions about each material of a given attribute. The subjects specified the most suitable material sample based on which sample that considered best looking. Objective test has been done in order to analyze the friction coefficient of each sample concerning the hand and the material samples. The difference of the contact area concerning the hand and the steering wheel in different grips was evaluated by using a simulation of a steering wheel. Some material properties that were considered vital for material in steering wheels in buses were that the friction must be high, the material should feel fairly humid and the temperature of the material should feel cool. The material sample that got the best ranking was a synthetic leather, P3, which has a relatively rough texture. The material sample that got a low ranking was also a synthetic leather, P4, which has a smooth and even texture. The test persons thought that P3 also was the material that looked best suited for the use in buses. The friction coefficient of the material samples were relatively similar to each other in the range of 0,91-2,02. The sample with the highest coefficient was the natural leather L3, and L2 had the lowest. The results of the measurements of the contact surfaces of the different grips provided a vague and deceptive result due to the method that was used.