As a designer with an industrial design background, I just couldn’t imagine how important the measurement of the man, woman, kids, and those with special needs are. It definitely is a milestone for design, for all industrial design products used by humans are more or less need the measurement standard from the human factors.
The measurement is not only for the industrial design of course. It reminds me of observation, another factor from user research that is really important. If you compare the model 302 and model 500 telephone, it’s easy to see the difference between them. The handset revived a huge update. Before getting into the solution, designers with Dreyfuss went though thousands of human face measure tests.
I have to mention the new princess phone too. It brings me to the next generation of phones. Making the phone portable is a massive improvement in design. Actually, users not only lay on the bed when talking through the phone, but they also go around the room holding the phone, so the phone line, at the same time, became longer as well.
You mentioned a good point in interaction design. Ergonomics is mostly an essential factor that interaction designers will consider in their design process. The knowledge you learned about human behavior research and ergonomics from industrial design will greatly support your interaction design work.
I agree, not only user research but the behavior is also important for design!