Furgonomics

Furgonomics (furry ergonomics) is the theoretical study of how a world inhabited by furry characters differs from a human world in ways other than its inhabitants. Where normal stories tend to note the gross differences (e.g., the role of predator-prey relations in normal relationships), furgonomics studies the small differences; that is, consumer goods, political correctness, linguistic differences, etc. Furgonomics issues are sometimes mentioned in stories in which furry characters act in a very human manner, to make clear that the furry still differs from the human.

In a multi-species civilization, the differences in sizes and body shapes mean that houses and transportation will vary accordingly in size and design, as will furniture, household appliances, bathroom installations, clothing, and user-interface devices such as keyboards. The amount of diversity largely depends on the circumstances: If furries are a minority in a world mostly populated by humans, they will have to get along with objects and environments designed for humans. If all furries are roughly the same size and of bipedal, plantigrade body shape, as is the style of some comic books, only small differences, compared to the human-dominated world, will be found, such as provisions for tails. If, however, many differently sized and shaped species form a common society, the problems become more complex. A civilization that has developed with more than one species participating for an extended period of time would have found solutions for furgonomics-related problems that would seem obvious and rarely worth mentioning to the later generations.