Technocene is a proposed phenomenon that draws attention to the negative impacts of our technological culture. Low-techs (also known as appropriate technologies) are a possible avenue for transforming this technological culture. The low-tech approach indeed calls for renewing mainstream design practices (e.g., by questioning needs to keep only the essentials, by reducing the complexity of artefacts, by maintaining rather than replacing). Unfortunately, there is a lack of guidance regarding the design process to follow in order to produce low-techs. In order to fill this gap, the present article proposes the first version of a design guide expanding on seven principles (Needs and Satisfiers Negotiation; Autonomy-Assistance Arbitration; Discoverability; Operative Transparency; Non-Functional Aspects; Information, Education and Training; Compensation) taken from previous research. Next steps necessary for the improvement and validation of the guide are also discussed.

Our technical culture is characterized by the development of increasingly complex artifacts. In this article, we introduce low-techs (sometimes termed "appropriate technologies"), which are alternative technologies designed to use fewer resources, target priority needs, and aim for a positive social and environmental impact. We describe their relevance for user experience researchers and practitioners interested in tackling environmental crises, and we discuss what actions can be conducted to improve low-techs' design and dissemination. Finally, from a survey of 396 participants, we derived 14 general user experience problems for low-techs to priority needs to derive necessary functionality, strike the right balance between empowerment and assistance, pay attention to non-functional features, facilitate discoverability, make artifacts and operation transparent, develop users' technical knowledge and skills, and compensate increased material loads and deficits. Practitioners can use these design principles to guide their development of low-techs.

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.

Future thinking (FT) is the cognitive ability that enables humans to mentally imagine and pre-experience future events. Despite a sharp increase in basic research on future thinking in the last decade, we note the lack of transfer to Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF&E), although the field is increasingly concerned by future artefacts and although theory building on future-oriented HF&E has begun (e.g. prospective ergonomics). This article gives an overview of key findings regarding future thinking, namely i) underlying cognitive mechanisms, ii) functions and obstacles, iii) common descriptors of future thinking, iv) recommendations as to the possible improvement of future thinking during user research and, v) methods for the assessment of future thinking abilities. This synthesis can support HF&E practitioners in fine-tuning their future-oriented methods.

L’ergonomie s’est largement developpee avec l’industrialisation et le souci de produire des machines adaptees aux situations de travail des humains qui les utilisent. Ces machines etant devenues, des les annees 70, des machines numeriques, l’ergonomie s’est de plus en plus consacree a des produits et services high-tech. Que peut faire l'ergonomie contemporaine pour accompagner le developpement des low-tech et ameliorer leur utilisabilite/experience utilisateur ?

Depuis une dizaine d'années, l’économie dite « du partage » (‘sharing economy’) se développe. Les entreprises offrant des services d'autopartage, de covoiturage ou de location d'appartements pour une courte durée sont les fers de lance de ce mouvement. Mais le secteur fait face à une série d’échecs d'usage (notamment de services d'autopartage et de vélopartage en libre-service), à une critique de son impact sociétal et environnemental (marchandisation, gentrification, effets rebonds) et à des règles sanitaires drastiques imposées par la pandémie en cours. Pour répondre à ces difficultés, cette communication des recommandations ayant pour objectif d'outiller l’évaluation et la conception d'objets partagés. Dans cette perspective, 7 critères ergonomiques (dit de « partageabilité ») sont proposés pour évaluer et concevoir des produits et services de partage d'objets physiques : Accompagnement, Appropriation Équilibrée, Coopérativité, Décontamination, Durabilité, Gouvernance et Valeur. Afin d’étudier la validité de ces critères, une étude exploratoire a évalué leur mise en application par 13 experts et expertes en ergonomie et facteur humain. Leur utilisation des critères pour catégoriser 40 cas pratiques a été comparée à l'affectation théorique des expérimentateurs. Les résultats indiquent un pourcentage global d'accord des experts avec l'affectation théorique de 85%. En outre, le niveau d'accord entre les experts mêmes a également été mesuré par le coefficient kappa de Randolph (0,75). Ces premiers résultats sont donc prometteurs et amènent à imaginer les étapes de validation suivantes des critères.

Ergonomics has largely developed with industrialization and the concern to produce machines adapted to the work situations of the humans who use them. Since the 1970s, these machines have become digital machines, thus ergonomics has been increasingly devoted to high-tech products and services. What can contemporary ergonomics do to accompany the development of low-techs and improve their usability/user experience?

Several branches stemming from the field of human-centered design have tackled the discovery of user needs in early design phases. Within one of these approaches, prospective ergonomics, this study is calling for new methods in order to better elicit needs from the user. The study draws from the research on future-oriented cognition regarding how people imagine the future. We then report on a pilot study on the effect of two future projection tasks on the elaboration of user needs.