A brief history of how a renowned industrial designer ...

A brief history of

how a renowned

industrial designer

pioneered the use

of anthropometric

measures in

product design.

BY RUSSELL FLINCHUM

18 ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN· WINTER 2000

HE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PROFESSION INthe United States traces its origin to thelate 1920s, when design offices werefounded in New York City by NormanBel Geddes, Walter Dorwin Teague,Henry Dreyfuss, and Raymond Loewy.Bel Geddes and his former understudyDreyfuss had experienced considerablesuccess in theatrical design, as hadTeague in the field of graphic design;

only Loewy, born in France, had any background inengllleenng.

These pioneers, as they have been called, were reallythe salesmen and coordinators of the talents of a diversepool of employees, and all sought to maintain their rolesas "authors" of their offices' designs, even when itbecame apparent that their output exceeded the capa-bilities of any individual. Whatever opinions we mayhold regarding the mythology of the early industrialdesign profession, the field's impact on the built envi-

Figure 1. '7oe" standing at a Warner & Swasey turretlathe, late 1950s. From The Measure of Man (1960).

at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on March 5, 2016erg.sagepub.comDownloaded from

http://erg.sagepub.com/

ronment was profound; an examination of the October1940 issue of Architectural Forum, which reviews theprevious Design Decade (as the magazine dubbed the1930s), reveals the predominance of the projects andproducts arising from these and other design offices.

Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972) was recognized in thelatter half of his career as "the conscience of the pro-fession" by many of his contemporaries and was closelyassociated with bringing anthropometics (now referredto as anthropometry) to bear on industrial design. Thiswas realized in both the designs executed by his firmand in the publication in 1960 of the collection of chartsof "Joe" and "Josephine" in The Measure of Man: HumanFactors in Design (see the illustration of Joe in Figure 1on the previous page).

An assessment of Dreyfuss's importance came to mein a letter from Walter Dorwin Teague, Jr., who had

Figure 2. Inte1'ior of lounge car, 20th Centlwy Limitedtrain, 1938. Two types of Luminator lighting, innovativefor their specificfunctions, are readily seen in this photo-p'aph. Courtesy New York Central Historical Society, Inc.

been active in the firm founded by his father beforeestablishing his own office. He wrote:

Dreyfuss's major contribution to the profes-sion was his carefully constructed series of anthro-pometric charts which designated all the mostimportant dimensions of men, women, and chil-dren, that affected the design of products to beused by people. No other industrial designers tookthe time and effort to do this; we, myself included,used Dreyfuss's charts when necessary.

In this article I explore the background leading up tothe creation of these charts with the hope of generat-ing a broader discussion of the initial contacts betweenindustrial designers and human engineering psycholo-gists (now called human factors/ergonomics profes-sionals). My supposition, which has yet to becontradicted by any knowledgeable source, is thatHenry Dreyfuss was the first industrial designer toactively encourage the application of anthropometry to

Figure 3. Grouped, from left to right around a scale modelof the Convair Flying Car in 1947, are Henry Dreyfuss,Bill Purcell, Strother MacMinn, and Charles Gerry.Courtesy Strother MacMinn.

WINTER 2000 • ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN 19



industrial design. Perhaps the most profound indicationof his importance was his receipt of the first Jack A.Kraft Award of the Human Factors and ErgonomicsSociety in 1971, "for significant efforts to extend ordiversify the application of human factors principles andmethods to new areas of endeavor."

Dreyfuss's Early InfluencesDuring his first decade as an industrial designer,

Dreyfuss was as open to accusations of "styling" as anyof his contemporaries. Indeed, the 20th Century Limit-ed train of 1938 stands as one of the hallmarks ofstreamlining (see Figure 2, page 19). Yet even in thisavatar of that disposable aesthetic, some 14 lighting fix-tures with specific functions marked a significant depar-ture from its predecessors.

Dreyfuss also revealed an early penchant for investi-gating the psychology of consumers. In an episoderecounted in his book Designing for People (1955), hestood in for a salesperson at the counter of a departmentstore to gauge reactions to an alarm clock designed byhis office. To his dismay, a customer compared the newdesign with one of its competitors by weighing each inher hand and then purchasing the heavier one, equatingits mass with greater quality, even though Dreyfuss hadmade a priority of making the new clock lighter.

He also wrote about the importance of "survivalform" - that is, carrying over some detail of a previousdesign to a new one to reassure a public buying oninstinct (or so he would have us believe). His desire toelevate his firm's designs above superficial repackagingcan be attributed to a range of influences, including apurely commercial wish to distinguish his designs fromthose of his competitors and attempts to please his wifeand partner, Doris Marks, whose own sense of aestheticseschewed unnecessary decoration. Whatever his motiva-tions, one can safely say that by the end of the DesignDecade, Dreyfuss was eager to pursue a new path.

This desire probably found its realization in work forthe military during World War II, when he designed theStrategy Rooms for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and de-signed the bases for 105-mm and 155 -mm artillerypieces for the U.S. Army Ordnance Division, along withother projects. "Q" clearance for his office staff, thehighest accorded to civilians, probably made the officeprivy to developments unknown to many others.

The Focus Shifts to ComfortIt was only following the war, with the addition of

several important members to the office, that his prior-ities shifted decisively. In short order, Robert H. Hosejoined as partner from a position as consultant to BellTelephone Laboratories, and William F. H. Purcell,Hose's brother-in-law, also became partner, bringingwith him degrees in engineering and architecture. Inthe long term, the most valuable member of the staff

20 ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN. WINTER 2000

proved to be Alvin R. Tilley, who had a degree inmechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Tech-nology in 1938 and had extensive experience workingfor the Federal Shipping and Drydock Company dur-ing World War II. After the war, Tilley worked brieflyin the office of Peggy Anne Rohde, widow of GilbertRohde, the designer who brought Herman Miller Com-pany around to modern design long before George Nel-son was employed by that furniture company. Alongwith Julian Everett, an architect by training who hadbeen with the office since the early 1930s, Dreyfuss hadassembled a very talented pool of designers with com-plementary skills.

Though not a member of the office, Janet Travell,who later became personal physician to PresidentsKennedy and Johnson, had been consulting with Drey-fuss since 1944. She specialized in skeletal and muscularpain, dealing with the most difficult and intractablecases. Travell became Dreyfuss's expert in seating

Dreyfuss revealed an earlypenchant for investigating thpsychology of consumers.

design, and one of her insights was truly revelatory: Herinjured patients could quickly detect shortcomings inseating design that might manifest themselves only aftermany hours with healthy test participants. Their firstproject together had been the seating for Convair's"Flying Car" (see Figure 3 on the previous page), a mag-nificent failure that made its debut in 1947 and wasquickly axed by Floyd OdIum, who was seeking to putthe aircraft manufacturer on sounder financial footing.

Another interesting project was undertaken for BellLabs to address complaints from its switchboard opera-tors. Purcell, Tilley, and Travell collaborated on a bent-plywood chair (see Figure 4, next page) in whichoperators supported themselves using their legs on aflat-section circular railing by canting the seat slightlyforward. Minimal armrests (often seen today in officetask furniture) helped provide some relaxation whenneeded, and in a nod to the user, which exemplified theDreyfuss approach, a small bent-plywood shelf was pro-vided under the seat for stowing handbags or other per-sonal items. The shift from tall switchboards to consolesmeant the design never went into production.

During this period, work was begun on a child's bicy-cle for American Machine and Foundry (AMF). Thisinnovative design began with home-movie footage ofchildren of varying ages riding bikes past a chain-linkfence; individual frames were blown up, and the positionsof seats and pedals were plotted against the happenstance

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23



Figure 4. Left. Designed for Bell TelephoneLaboratories in 1946, this switchboard operators' chairprovided support, relaxation, and a shelf for storinghandbags. Cou1·tesyWilliam F. H. Purcell.

Figure 5. Above right. Bicycleprototype for AmericanMachine and Foundry, 1953. This later prototypeundid the original "reversible" design described in thetext. Courtesy John Bruce.Figure 6. Top. Robert H. Hose sketching ideasforthe Model 500 telephone.

WINTER 2000 • ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN 2 I



Figure 8. Below. Model302 telephone (left) of 1937

compared with the Model500 (1949).

Figure 7. Left. Wood handset prototypes leading to the Type Ghandset of 1949, which remains in production and is stillwidely used in pay telephones.

Figure 9. Below. Tank driver's compartment for the U.S. ArmyOrdnance Division, 1953. Mockup of the compartment appears onthe left, with Alvin Tilley's analysis on right.

22 ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN· WINTER 2000



grid of the fence. A test stand was built in the office, andstaff were invited to "ride" it, first in the position in whichthe previous subject had left the seat and pedals and thenin the positions they chose as most comfortable. In typi-cal Dreyfuss fashion, a scrapbook-like History of the Bicy-cle (c. 1947, since lost except for a microfilm copy) wasassembled to make sure that no innovative ideas from thepast had been overlooked. In its final form, the stamped-steel frame of the bike could be flipped to provide boy'sor girl's versions (see Figure 5, page 21). This project'sdemise came when AMF realized that the money to besaved by this scheme would be going into the pockets ofretailers rather than the manufacturer.

The most famous design from this period producedby Dreyfuss's firm was the Model 500 telephone, whichbegan development in 1946 with a stunning range ofproposals sketched by Hose and others (see Figure 6,page 21). It debuted in 1949 and remained in produc-tion, with minor modifications, for the next 33 years, ameasure of its stylistic durability during the heyday ofplanned obsolescence.

In consultations with Bell Labs engineers, many ofthese advanced concepts proved impractical in light ofthe necessary accommodation of the guts of the newphone. Work on the handset progressed rapidly, withwooden mockups being tested for feel (Figure 7, page22). Beginning with the Type F handset of 1937, Drey-fuss's designers and modelmakers created a series offorms ranging from nearly geometric to the "mongrel,"as they referred to the lumpy rectangle cross-section of

This project's demise came when AMF

realized that the money to be saved by

this scheme would be going into the

pocl<ets of retailers rather than the

man ufactu rer.

the eventual Type G handset (second from the top,right side of Figure 7).

Dreyfuss's input to the Model 500 was somewhatlimited but essential; Purcell recalled in an interviewthat Dreyfuss was presented with a model of the newphone and pronounced that it gave him "griptophobia"when he picked up the handset (one must rememberthat its predecessor was also a Dreyfuss design). Whenthe irritated Dreyfuss slammed the handset into the claymock-up of the base, cracking it, Purcell convinced himthat this validated the design; the flattened, nottriangular, back of the handset helped assure that the

connection would be broken properly (the receiver-off-hook problem was a bhe noire to the Bell TelephoneLaboratories staff). An additional benefit of the flat-tened section, not noted at the time, was that it allowedthe handset to be cradled between the shoulder and ear,freeing the user's hands. The handset design presentedto Dreyfuss that day remains in production and is stillwidely used in pay telephones.

The Model 500 project also marked the first directcontact between Dreyfuss and a human factors profes-sional. John Karlin had been hired by Bell TelephoneLaboratories in 1946, the first human engineering psy-chologist to work in private industry. One of his firstduties was to assess the performance of the new tele-phone. Much to the dismay of the project managers,Karlin found that dialing time increased by a fractionof a second with the new model compared with its pre-decessor.

What went wrong? Examining the two phones sideby side (see Figure 8) makes the difference apparent;the earlier model had a white background beneath itsfingerwheel, with the numbers and letters inside theholes. Users had often scratched or defaced these withfingernails, pencils, or pens when dialing, so the num-bers and letters were moved to the exterior of the dial inthe new design. Dreyfuss claimed this also ended theannoying flicker created when the fingerwheel was inmotion. Unfortunately, when the Model 500 firstappeared, it had a black metal fingerwheel against ablack background, and test participants had difficultydetermining when the fingerwheel stopped moving.The practical solution was to add "aiming dots" beneaththe holes of the fingerwheel. Dreyfuss disingenuouslypointed out that these dots had speeded up dialing time.

Stimulus for theAnthropometry Drawings

By 1951, the intuitive approach that had guided theoffice seemed insufficient for the growing number ofprojects involving interaction between human andmachine. Deere & Company tractors, Hyster forklifts,and passenger interiors for Lockheed's Super-G Con-stellation aircraft were all on the drawing boards. Oneproject of immediate concern was the design of a tankdriver's compartment for the U.S. Army (see Figure 9on page 22). An already cramped interior posed an addi-tional problem: the driver had to be able to view ter-rain through a periscope while the tank was closed, butmore typically his head would protrude through an openhatch. A full-scale mockup was constructed, but onlyafter the designers realized that two different seatingpositions would have to be accommodated. This appar-ently called for the drawing of the first of the "Joe"charts, more general versions of which would appear inDreyfuss's Designing for People (1955), and in greaterdetail in The Measure of Man (1960).

WINTER 2000 • ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN 23



According to John Bruce, a designer active in the officeduring this period, Dreyfuss called Julian Everett, AlvinTilley, Anne Shortess (who covered many special assign-ments but was not a designer), and Bruce into his office.He told this group that he was ready to prioritize thedevelopment of a guide to human dimensions in designand that it would be up to them to seek out the sources ofinformation. Many of these sources, familiar to the firstgeneration of human factors specialists in the UnitedStates, were cited in the bibliography accompanying TheMeasure of Man. Not as familiar were the less formal

Tilley stated that the major change he

had witnessed over nearly 50 years inthe design field was the increasing

pressure to bring products to market

as quickly as possible.

inquiries: calls to dress designers on Seventh Avenueinquiring about typical female dimensions, which werepencilled into the margin of one of Tilley's notebooks.

This reliance on anecdotal information would natu-rally be criticized by the more rigorous, experiment-ori-ented human factors professionals, who often benefitedfrom more lenient schedules and better funding, unlikethe industrial designers, who often work under tightbudgets and tighter deadlines. This is a key to under-standing one source of friction between this communi-ty and its counterparts in human factors research. Tilleystated in an interview with me in the early 1990s thatthe major change he had witnessed over nearly 50 yearsin the design field was the increasing pressure to bringproducts to market as quickly as possible. Speaking ofthe Model 500 telephone project, he said, "Then we hadtwo years; today you'd be lucky to have two months."

As I researched this area more fully, Tilley emergedas the unsung hero of this story, a dedicated, driven, butself-effacing figure whom former partner James N.Conner called "the backbone of the office for manyyears." Trained as a design engineer, Tilley focused onthe development of practical tools of immediate use tothe office and on their publication for the professionalcommunity. Conner, with a sound education in engi-neering from Stanford and aesthetics from Cranbrook,queried Tilley after the publication of The Measure ofMan as to whether there shouldn't be some notation onthe charts as to the source of the information. Tilleysummarized his thinking concisely:

Our information is a summation of practicaldata for our type of use. Some material is a com-

24 ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN. WINTER 2000

posite of many different sources; some informa-tion is extrapolated. If reference sources weregiven for each piece of data, the book would be-come so voluminous and complex as to be imprac-tical; also we might receive criticism for takingmaterial out of context .... Some day, better datawill be available. Until then, we must make use ofthe tools we now have.

Although some human factors/ergonomics profes-sionals have taken issue with the Joe charts and theirderivations, industrial designers quickly adopted them,and they no doubt made a rising generation aware of anew level of complexity in shaping the built environment.Through later revisions (a second edition in 1967, theHumanscale series of the 1970s and 1980s, and The Mea-sure of Man and Woman, published in 1994), the Drey-fuss office constantly worked to refine these tools. Theyconstituted a gift of many thousands of hours of labor tothe profession and stand as the prime example of Drey-fuss's dedication to making industrial design a profes-sional activity rather than a series of styling exercises.

Today, designers are better informed than ever inthis area, and human factors experts are found in manyleading design firms. Yet, the fundamental challengefaced by Dreyfuss and his contemporaries remains withus today: If good design cannot be made commerciallyviable, efforts to establish a better fit between humansand their machines will fall by the wayside. A closer col-laboration between practitioners in both fields is essen-tial to realize the promise of safe, functional, and evenbeautiful products reaching a growing audience.

BibliographyDiffrient, N., Tilley, A., & Bardagjy, J. C. (1974). HU'l1lanscale 1/2/3.

Cambridge: MIT Press.Diffrient, N., Tilley, A., & Harman, D. (1981a). Humanscale 4/5/6.

Cambridge: MIT Press.Diffrient, N., Tilley, A., & Harman, D. (1981b). Humanscale 7/8/9.

Cambridge. MIT PressDreyfuss, H. (1955). Designingfor people. New York: Simon & Schuster.Dreyfuss, H. (1960). The measure of man: Human factors in design. New

York: Whitney Library of Design. (2nd ed., 1971)Flinchum, R. (1997). Henry Dreyfuss, industrial designer. New York:

Rizzoli/National Design Museum.Myers, H. (1940, October). Design decade. Architectural Forum. Spe-

cial issue devoted to design in the United States, 1930-1940.Tilley, A. (1994). The measure of man and woman - Human factors in

design. New York: Watson-Guptill.

Russell Flinchum was the fSUestcurator for the National DesignMuseum's exhibition on Dreyfuss in 1997.His book HenryDreyfuss, Industrial Designer, received numerous awards, in-cludingfrom the New Yark State HistoricalAssociation.He may bereachedat P.O. Box 967,Bronxville, NY 10708-0967. mil



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