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This article seems to ignore the fatal flaw in the search for the virtual person: While such a model is designed to represent all people, it in reality represents no individual. The ergonometric model says that a man is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. I can tell you–as a man 6 feet, 5 inches and 320 pounds–that public facilities and equipment designed from this pontification frankly stink. The attempt to standardize us all has social consequences too frightening to contemplate.

McClellan G. Blair
Indiana, Pa.

The article mentions that Deere & Co. uses “Jack” to help equipment designers “to ensure there is adequate visibility from the vehicle cab.” I believe that automobile manufacturers have neglected the human element in the design of current cookie-cutter cars. As a result, all current models have hazardous blind spots caused by the windshield-support columns. Compounding the problem is the significant glare and distortion that is caused by windshield glass that is slanted at a 25-degree angle to the line of sight to reduce wind resistance. If automobile manufacturers don’t get back to human engineering, my next vehicle may be a John Deere tractor.

Eugene T. Phillip
Great Falls, Va.