Video instructions: ergonomics for your brain

Video Work Instructions: Ergonomics for your brain
​by Desiree Schnoor
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      When you think of ergonomics, you might think of the benefits a standing desk has on your back, or how good it feels when your fancy toothbrush fits perfectly in your hand. Ergonomics aims to help our bodies function as best as best they can in our environments. But what about our brains?
      Virtual QE has revolutionized the manufacturing world with Video Work Instructions. Video work Instructions are to brain ergonomics as standing desks are to body ergonomics.
     Shawn Findlater, the CEO of Virtual QE recognizes the ease and speed that video work instructions give manufacturing employees. “When we ask a manufacturing employee to complete a task they have never completed, sometimes even using parts they have never seen before, by watching a first-person video of an expert completing that task, they do it easily and correctly. They know that watching a video is easy and efficient. They like it and their managers like it.”
         Apparently, their brains like it too. The traditional way of paper and picture work instructions are outdated not just because they are messy, revisions take forever, and they crowd the workstation, but because our brains actually work better- processing information easier, faster more accurately when viewing video; not text and still pictures.
        When we are learning any task, if the information is perceived as words, our brains actually have to recognize letters, then words, then translate them into usable information. That information is stored and translated into a sequence of steps. While each piece of information is tiny and these processes take milliseconds, the time adds up, and when error or missteps happen along the way, the process must start over. Not only does this increase production time, it increases our cognitive load, causing us more mental strain and fatigue.
        When creating video work instructions, Virtual QE takes all this science into consideration, as well as other factors like, first person view, quality inputs and other factors, to give manufacturers and employees a learning tool that our brains love.