Responsibility to customers
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.
We have applied the concept of universal design (UD) to home appliances such as air conditioners and televisions, as well as to public equipment such as elevators, through considering the needs of all users. This approach is continuing to evolve.
* Graphic User Interface
Mitsubishi Electric has been ahead of the game in applying the concepts of universal design (UD) to home appliances. For instance, we have applied the Universal Design Guidelines to the RakuRaku-IH Cooking Heater cooking equipment.
Large character & numerical indication of steps for use
<Features>
Safety sensor & audio support
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Even in the industrial sector, where there is a high level of specialization and a relative lack of diversity in terms of operators who handle equipment, the labor environment is changing. Examples of this transformation include the aging of workers, and more foreign and inexperienced workers – changes that have increased the need for universal design. At Mitsubishi Electric, we are applying the concept of universal design (UD) in our industrial products, such as factory automation (FA) equipment and electric power devices, as well as to the installation and maintenance of equipment on factory floors.
We are also employing the Universal Design Guidelines for sequencers in FA equipment.
Print design illustrating the actual wiring
Presentation with consideration for persons with impaired color vision
Easy to understand information display
The enlarged control portion has improved operability
UD-Checker is Mitsubishi Electric’s proprietary tool that can be used by both industrial designers and engineers to evaluate for universal design (UD) qualities. This tool shows four quantitative measures of UD, namely recognition, identification, physical use, and safety/usability, 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.
The UD-Checker’s four evaluation criteria
The UD-Checker’s four evaluation criteria
Results sheet is automatically output based on the entry into the check items
The Universal Design Guidelines are a set of standards that apply to a wide range of product development, and were formulated based on the expertise gained through using the UD-Checker. To promote greater usability of our products by all users, including children, senior citizens, and people with physical disabilities, we created guidelines on changes that occur to human characteristics with age and that consider disabilities. The guidelines are structured in the same way as the UD-Checker, which incorporates the four perspectives of recognition, identification, physical use, and safety/usability.
Under a campaign to provide first-rate instruction manuals, 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.
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.
Quick Guide (Basic operations)
In fiscal 2020, following the International Association for Universal Design (IAUD)’s evaluations of Mitsubishi Electric’s developments based on experiments targeting various users, we won a total of four awards at the IAUD International Design Awards. The accolades included the Silver Award for the ELE FIRST-i plus smartphone service app for elevators as well as the Bronze Award for the Kirigamine MSZ-R Series and MSZ-BXV Series room air conditioners, the EW-45LD1M Series built-in dishwasher and dryer, and the CG Series refrigerator.
Mitsubishi Electric aims in fiscal 2021 to continue creating universal design products that take ingenious approaches and consider various perspectives across a broad range of fields.
ELE FIRST-i plus smartphone service app for elevators
Kirigamine MSZ-R Series and MSZ-BXV Series room air conditioner
EW-45LD1M Series built-in dishwasher and dryer
CG Series refrigerator