Applying Industrial Design Best Practices in the Acquisition of Soldier Equipment

摘要

Too often a piece of equipment is delivered which, though functional, is unusable, The computer provides us an excellent example of this phenomenon in our daily life, There are so many features on most computers that we will never understand them all, we will never use all the features, and what is worse, the excess features confuse the user and may even make accomplishment of the core task more difficult, The goal of any designer should be to develop a piece of equipment that facilitates the accomplishment of a task and is a pleasure to use, These criteria must be the overriding consideration of the developer whenever they acquire a new system or piece of equipment, System designers today are better trained and have more resources at their disposal than perhaps any designers in any time in history, What's more, designers today have design media, such as software, which provide unique opportunities to make incredibly effective pieces of equipment to facilitate the accomplishment of virtually any task, Certainly military program managers are concerned with the acceptance of the equipment they field, However, undesirable equipment is still in our inventory, such as some of the radio systems, and certain features on military vehicles, This thesis examines why a good design is critical and explores the best ways the program manager can apply industrial design best practices in the development of soldier equipment.