The ergonomics of shareable things: from a synthesis of historical sharing activities to a set of criteria for physical sharing experiences

Abstract

Sharing is a complex system of resource allocation at the crossroad of developing businesses (e.g., the ‘sharing economy’) and promising societal and environmental impacts. Yet, it is suffering from adoption problems (e.g., vandalism, unwarranted privatisation, reluctance) that call for more ergonomics research. In order to contribute to research on sharing within human factors and ergonomics, the evolution of sharing is synthesised to highlight its roots, developments and societal outcomes. A subset of sharing activities, sharing physical objects, is identified. In order to provide common ground to researchers and practitioners it is defined as ‘a cooperative and distributive behavior where a user does not have exclusive interactions with a material resource which is, then, enjoyed in common’. A lack of research on shared physical objects within human factors and ergonomics is identified. Finally, seven shareability criteria (Governance, Utility, Balanced appropriation, Cooperativity, Durability, Decontamination, Onboarding/Support) are proposed in order to support practitioners when designing experiences that include sharing physical things.

Keywords:

• Sharing
• ergonomic criteria
• shareability
• sharing economy
• shareable things
• sharing physical objects

Acknowledgements

C. Colin took the lead in writing and revising the manuscript. E. Brangier provided critical feedback and supervised the PhD project. The authors wish to acknowledge support from and fruitful discussions with Laurence Maréchal. The authors wish to acknowledge fruitful discussions with Antoine Martin. The manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors. There are no other persons who satisfy the criteria for authorship and are not listed.

Funding

This work has been partly supported by a CIFRE grant from ANRT (Association Nationale de la Recherche Technologique) on behalf of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clement Colin

Clement Colin is a PhD candidate in ergonomics at Université de Lorraine. His work focuses on physical sharing experiences and shared mobility.

Eric Brangier

Eric Brangier is a full professor in ergonomics at Université de Lorraine. Prof. Brangier’s work has resulted in 350+ papers, communications, reports, keynotes about different human-technology related issues. Some of his recent work has tackled criteria for persuasive interfaces, criteria for gamified interfaces, human-technology symbiosis, and prospective ergonomics.