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On Average (Episode 266 of 99% Invisible)

record updated
item type
article on a website
author
Avery Trufelman
link
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/
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journal
99PercentInvisible.org
year
2016
month
October 12

PainSci notes

Brilliant podcast/article about the concept of the average person and the implications of this influential myth. Turns out no one is average, because everyone is unusual in some ways — which is basically why car seats are adjustable. Designing for average people is fine when the stakes are low, but it can be disastrous. The most spectacular example is surely the American Air Force’s crashing crisis in the 1950s. They’d built their cockpits for “average” pilots, but most pilots didn’t fit in one or two crucial ways, and couldn’t control their planes because of it!

In his research measuring thousands of airmen on a set of ten critical physical dimensions, Daniels realized that none of the pilots he measured was average on all ten dimensions. Not a single one. When he looked at just three dimensions, less than five percent were average. Daniels realized that by designing something for an average pilot, it was literally designed to fit nobody.

It can also be disastrous to diagnose based on the seductive idea of “normal” anatomy or function.

~ Paul Ingraham, PainSci Publisher

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