Checklists for the Evaluation of Computer Workplaces – Practical Requirements and Current Design Concepts

Initiated by the European Community, most organizations are now confronted with the task to evaluate the ergonomic design of their computer workplaces. To clarify the practical demands of assisting checklists, an expert poll was performed. In this poll, the following requirements turned out to be essential: (a) The evaluation should be concise. 63% of the experts voted for a checklist with 20 to 39 items, to fit the efficiency demands of practice. (b) The assistance should be concrete. 97% called for prototypical cases illustrating the application of the checklist. (c) The tool is expected to support problem solving. 92% suggested that the checklist provides redesign suggestions. (d) The tool should be adapted to the user. 76% voted to provide different checklists for experts and novices. On the other hand, 67% of the experts could not specify a checklist that comes close to these requirements. Thus, it seems that the practical needs are still rarely matched and the realization of the computer workplace legislation is yet not well supported. As an alternative, a more systematic and user centered design approach in the development of corresponding checklists is proposed.