Ergonomic methods have been effectively applied to design and evaluation of functional clothing. The goals of the present study are to: (1) develop an ergonomic evaluation system for the systematic analysis of functional clothing and (2) examine the usefulness of the proposed evaluation system by applying to flame-proof clothing. Based on the survey of literature and the brainstorming of experts in clothing design and ergonomics, factors considered for clothing evaluation were selected, classified, and complemented, resulting in an ergonomic clothing evaluation system consisting of four factor categories (clothing construction, user, work and environment, and user response). Using the proposed system, a field survey and a laboratory experiment were conducted for flame-proof clothing to identify its design problems. The field survey to workers found a comprehensive set of problems on the flame-proof clothing design in terms of pattern, textile, and color. The laboratory experiment identified additional design problems using a questionnaire that was developed based on an analysis on the relationship between clothing design components and ergonomic evaluation measures. The present study showed the ergonomic evaluation system and the relationship analysis of clothing design components and ergonomic evaluation measures are of use to identify design problems of functional clothing in a comprehensive and analytic manner.

Ergonomic techniques have been required to analyze the effectiveness of functional clothing design improvement in a systematic and analytic manner. The goals of the present study are to: (1) comprehensively and analytically examine the effectiveness of clothing improvement by using the relationship analysis between clothing design components (D) and ergonomic evaluation measures (E) and (2) prove the usefulness of cost-effectiveness analysis for clothing design optimization. The cost effectiveness analysis is comprised of the preliminary evaluation based on expertise and the in-depth evaluation where the D-E relationship analysis is applied. As a result of the cost effectiveness analysis applied to flame-proof clothing, an optimal design was identified by analyzing costs and qualitative/quantitative effects. In the preliminary evaluation, the expected effectiveness of each design alternative on wear efficiency and wear comfort was estimated. In the in-depth evaluation, however, the effectiveness of each design alternative was analyzed by quantitative evaluation in a wearing test using a questionnaire prepared based on the D-E relationship analysis. It was concluded that the D-E relationship analysis and the cost-effectiveness analysis are useful for comprehensive evaluation and optimization of functional clothing design.