Designing usable ships
The only real common concept seems to be safe. However, safe might not be given the same meaning by all users. Society would probably tend to view safe as no disasters while the crew would look at a safe ship as one that not only keeps floating but also is not inviting small personal accidents such as slips and falls.
So how do you build a ship that is - at the same time - cheap, safe, comfortable, easy to maintain, easy to operate and environmentally friendly?
Rules, regulations and recommendations issued by IMO, ILO and classification societies help to a certain extent, but they do not in themselves solve the problem. The professional knowledge and skill of the designers and builders of ships is of paramount importance in order for us to get ships that are really usable.
Simple things like making sure that surfaces, ladders and staircases do not invite slips, trips and falls; sufficiently lighted work areas; avoidance of noise and vibrations; layout of crews’ accom- modation; etc play a very important role for the persons on board and should be addressed already at the design stage. There is a wealth of information available from other industries on human factors and ergonomics - why not use it?
Common sense should be used when designing a ship. This would and should certainly include consulting the people who are actually going to spend a lot of their time on board - the seafarers. And by this I do not only mean the master!
A full version of Jorgen Rasmussen’s paper on Designing Usable Ships can be downloaded below:
HE00360 - DESIGNING USABLE SHIPS