ERGONOMIC DESIGN OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT ATTAIANESE, Erminia (1) (1) University of Naples Federico II - Dept. of Architecture and LUPT Interdept.Research Centre, Assistant Professor of Architectural Technology Email: erminia.attaianese@unina.it INTRODUCTION Over the last 50 years, ergonomics/ human factors (HFE) discipline has been evolving as a distinctive area of knowledge focusing on the nature of human–artefact interactions, viewed from the unified perspective of the science, engineering, design, technology, and management of human-compatible systems, including a variety of natural and artificial products, processes, and living environments [1]. According to a wide discussion within researchers and ergonomic scientific associations [1] the main goal of HFE is today understand interactions between people and everything that surrounds us, and based on such knowledge to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. It discovers and applies information about human behaviour, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments for productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use, in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency with which human activities are conducted as well as to improve the general quality of life [1,2]. So, one of the distinguishing features of the HFE discipline and profession, together with the fundamental understanding of the interactions between people and their environments, is an understanding of how human–system interactions should be designed, since HFE has positioned itself as a unique, design-oriented discipline. Design is one of the paradigms of HFE discipline, and is concerned with the ability to implement knowledge about human-systems interactions, as previously identified, described, assessed and modelled, and use them to develop systems that satisfy customer needs CORE CHARACTERISTICS OF ERGONOMIC DESIGN. HFE has a unique combination of three fundamental characteristics: it takes a systems approach, it is design-driven and it focuses on two closely related outcomes: performance of designed system and well-being of people using them [3]. User-centered design methodology is the application of ergonomics to design, which core is design whatever system, focusing on users [4,5]. Essential element of user-centred design are the active involvement of users and a clear understanding of user and task requirements; an appropriate allocation of functions between users and technology; iteration of design solutions in a multi-disciplinary frame [6]. In fact these elements result from the application into design activities of ergonomic general principles, expressing through key concepts as follows [7]: - empirical approach, as design choices and decisions are founded on controlled qualitative and quantitative data, gathered by actual users psycho-physical characteristics [8]; - iterative dimension, as design development is a non-deterministic cyclic process, each phase of which proceeds experimentally, testing alternative solutions based on the lessons learned about the performance of the previous one [9];