Basic Policy

The Mitsubishi Electric Group engages in universal design under the principle of "creating user-friendly products and comfortable living environments that benefit as many people as possible." To achieve user-friendliness and comfortable living in the true sense of the words, we are committed to providing products and living environments that offer a high level of satisfaction to as many people as possible.

Universal Design that Provides Ease of Use

Universal Design is an approach that aims to create designs that can be used easily by as many people as possible. Mitsubishi Electric evaluates its products from many perspectives, considering whether they are simple and easy to understand, have easy-to-recognize displays and layouts, have been given sufficient ergonomic consideration in terms of comfortable posture and minimal physical load, and are safe and convenient. In this way, we strive to manufacture products that are easy to use and result in more comfortable lifestyles.

Imagining use by various people, we have continuously applied universal design and allowed it to evolve in the production of home appliances like air conditioners and televisions as well as products used by the general public, such as elevators. The "Uni & Eco" business strategy was introduced for home appliance products in fiscal 2005. In fiscal 2011, targeting expansion of the market to include elderly users in their 70s, we developed a series equipped with the "RakuRaku Assist" function."RakuRaku Assist" incorporates the latest convenience functions in a way that is fun and easy to use. A continuation of this is the "Smart Quality" initiative launched in fiscal 2013. Additionally, for elevators, we are developing voice-activated operation and other functions for visually impaired users and users in wheelchairs.

The need for universal design has also grown in the industrial sector, a field traditionally characterized by professional workers who handle equipment. The working environment in this field has begun to change, with an increase in the number of older workers, foreign workers, and nonskilled laborers. In response to this situation, Mitsubishi Electric widely applies universal design principles to its industrial products, including factory automation (FA) equipment and electric power equipment, as well as to the installation and maintenance of such products on the shop floor.

In fiscal 2018, a number of Mitsubishi Electric products developed based on evaluation tests targeting a diverse range of users were well received at the IAUD Awards, organized by the International Association for Universal Design. The Mitsubishi elevator touch panel-style elevator hall registry control panel took the gold award. Other prizes were awarded to products including the Mitsubishi air conditioner ZW/ZXV series, the Oven/Grill with voice navigation ZITANG range grill with voice guidance, and a car navigation system that provides better user assistance and reduces danger during collisions (NR-MZ300PREMI). Mitsubishi Electric products were awarded a total of seven prizes.

In fiscal 2019 as well, we will continue to sensibly and ingeniously apply universal design in the creation of products throughout our wide-ranging business domain.

Universal Design Examples to Date

Universal Design Guidelines for widespread usability

To promote greater usability of our products by all users, including children, the elderly, and people with physical disabilities, we formulated guidelines grounded in surveys and research on changes that occur to human characteristics with age. The guidelines give consideration to these changes mainly in terms of the following three perspectives.

Structure of the Universal Design Guidelines

1. Recognition: consideration for ease of understanding
2. Identification: consideration for ease of reading and/or hearing
3. Physical use: consideration for comfortable posture and minimum physical load

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"RakuRaku-IH" Cooking Heater (home appliance equipped with RakuRaku Assist)

This Mitsubishi Electric product in Japan incorporates features such as large characters, visual and aural notification, and easy maintenance, which are three concepts of "revolutionary ease of use" based on Universal Design Guidelines.

"RakuRaku-IH" Cooking Heater CS-G20AKS

Large characters & numerical indicators of steps for use

Safety sensor & audio support

MELSEC L-Series Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) designed for use even by less-experienced workers

Mitsubishi Electric's MELSEC L-Series general-purpose PLCs function as factory computers, and deliver the following three advantages to meet the needs of a wide variety of users, by delivering both the productivity improvements demanded by veteran workers and also the ease of use needed by less-experienced laborers.

• The terminal arrangement is printed to display wiring groups, for intuitive function display.
• The unit employs UD fonts, with large character display that is well contrasted from the background color, to prevent wiring errors.
• Text is displayed in English/Japanese on the LCD screen, making it easy for even less-experienced workers to deal with on-site trouble.

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  Printed to illustrate wiring groups

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  Characters and displays are easy to read

"UD-Checker" Original system for universal design evaluation

UD-Checker is a tool that can be used by both industrial designers and engineers to evaluate for universal design qualities. This tool shows four quantitative measures of universal design, indicating specific design aspects for development and improving the efficiency of product development.

The UD-Checker is used on a wide variety of Mitsubishi Electric products from home appliances and public equipment to industrial equipment.

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  Check sheet of UD-Checker

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  Results sheet of UD-Checker

Creating easy-to-understand instruction manuals

Under a campaign to provide first-rate instruction manuals, the Mitsubishi Electric Group is directing its efforts to creating easy-to-read and easy-to-understand instruction manuals to ensure the safe and comfortable use of our products. Forming the basis of this effort is Mitsubishi Electric's original "Guidelines for the creation of instruction manuals for home appliances—Instructions." To raise the quality level of instruction manuals, this handbook is distributed to all affiliates in Japan who handle home appliances.

Example instruction manual: Mitsubishi Electric Kirigamine FL Series room air conditioners

Our Quick Guide (Basic Operations) enlarges each button, allowing users to recognize at a glance which button they should push on their remote control. In addition to this, large font sizes and ample margins make the explanations extremely easy to understand.

• Instruction manual for Mitsubishi Electric Kirigamine FL Series room air conditioners: 7.0MB
  (Japanese only)