Intro Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is human factors
The HF discipline concerns human interaction with systems and environments and the application of knowledge of human capabilities and limitations to the designs of products, spaces, systems, procedures and tools, with the goal of enhancing performance, increasing safety and increasing user satisfaction and wellbeing
HF: content
Involves looking at the interaction between the human operator and the system
HF: goals
Enhance performance
Increase safety
Increase user satisfaction and wellbeing
There might be trade offs but not inevitable (Wickens et al., 2004)
HF: scope
Focus on human performance and safety in the workplace (expanded to include transportation, aspects of the home and accessibility)
Human factors - history
1910/40s - original of HF can be traced back to military aviation. Growing recognition that accidents caused by ‘pilot error’ rather than mechanical error. However, errors/accidents driven by cockpit design issues. Solved by introduction of tactile discriminability (first example where design error was considered instead of individuals making mistakes)
40s/50s - expanded beyond military/aviation into industries such as manufacturing, transportation and healthcare
1949 - chartered institute of ergonomics and human factors (CIEHF) founded
1949 - Chapanis, Garner and Morgan published Applied Experimental Psychology: Human factors in engineering design
1957 - HF society (now known as the HF and ergonomics society HFES) established
1958 - first issue of HF journal published
What is HF psychology
Using psychological science and principles/ theories to inform the design of products, systems and devices (a focus on performance and safety) or to approach the overcoming of system issues.
‘Human centred’ rather than ‘function centred’
What is human centred design
A process that places the human needs and limitations in a higher priority compared with other targets during the various stages of planning design and production
Why does HF psychology matter?
As psychologists we have knowledge of attention perception cognition planning actions etc etc
We can use this knowledge to help inform design, implementation and improvements
Scope of HF extended version
While the field of HF originally grew out of a fairly narrow concern for human interaction with physical devices, its scope has broadened greatly during the last few decades. This growth, plus the fact that the the practice of HFs is goal oriented rather than content oriented means that the precise boundaries of the discipline cannot be tightly defined
Matrix of HF topics - Wickens
Contextual environment of system
Individual operator
- manufacturing
-computer and information
- health care
- Consumer products
- Transportation
Group
-team
-organisation
Human components
- visibility
-sensation
- perception (indiv differences)
-communications cognition and decision (training)
- motor control (stress)
- muscular strength
- other biological factors
HF closely related to…
Ergonomics
What’s ergonomics
Typically refers more to physical aspects (stress fatigue). Closely related to human physiology whereas HF is more commonly associated with psychological aspects
What is engineering psychology
Goal is to understand the human mind as is relevant to the design of systems, places greater emphasis on discovering generalisable psychological principles and theory, whereas HF places greater emphasis on developing usable design principles
What’s cog engineering
Focuses on the complex cog thinking and knowledge related aspects of system performance, whether carried out by human or by machine agents
Related disciplines to HF
ergonomics
Engineering psych
Cog engineering
Does the interaction between human and the system work well
It is more often the case that the interaction between the human and the system work well. However, it is characteristic of human nature to notice when things go wrong more readily than when things go right. Furthermore, it is the situation when things go wrong that triggers the call for diagnosis and solution, and understanding these situations represents the key contributions of HFs to the system design.
Who published Applied experimental psychology: human factors in engineering design and in what year
Chapanis, garner and Morgan
1949
Chapanis, Garner and Morgan published what in 1949
Applied experimental psychology: human factors in engineering design
HF research cycle loop
Main goals of HF accomplished by several procedures in HF cycle:
Point A - identify problems in human-system interaction of existing or developing system
To do this effectively, requires core knowledge of the human physical system (the body), mind (info processing capacity/limitations) and the non-human physical/information systems involved
Point B: after identifying the problem, need to implement solutions such as equipment design, task design, environmental design, selection (indiv differences) and training. Apply these approaches to fix the problems, performance can be measured again to ensure that the fix was successful.
Cycle loop - good practice of HF
Practice of good HF = designing systems that are effective at the start, thereby anticipating and avoiding the HF deviencies before they are inflicted on the system design. Thus the role of HFs in the design loop can just as easily enter at point B as at point A with the design incorporating good equipment, task design etc
Approaches designed to fix problems identified in human-system interaction of existing/ developing systems
Equipment design - changing nature of physical equipment/devices used
Task design - changing what workers actually do
Environmental design - changing lighting, temp, reducing noise in physical environment
Training - better preparing the workers for conditions
Selection - technique that recognises the indiv differences across humans
Research topic example:
Human error and accidents
Tenerife disaster, 1977
Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 1986
Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, 1952
Research topic examples: human machine interface
Cockpit in planes
Screens in cars
Enhancing performance by making sure files at same altitude = more fuel efficient
