Development of a critical task methodology for furniture evaluation

In customer service operations at post offices, furniture is installed behind the clerk's counter to provide temporary storage of special mail to be collected or brought in by the customer. Such furniture allows the clerk to perform almost all required functions in full sight of the customer, preventing customer frustration at not understanding what the clerk is doing and enhancing security by not leaving the customer unobserved. It also means that customers can observe any errors and difficulties encountered by the clerk, suggesting that an ergonomic analysis of the storage furniture is required before deployment takes place. This paper shows how a suitable methodology based on critical tasks was derived, and how the results led to specific design recommendations.