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Essay on This is Dealing with Human Factors Engineering
Human factors engineering is a generalist term used to describe a number of disciplines that study how users appreciate and interact with products. A human factor has its origins in World War II, when it was used to address airplane design so that new airplanes could be built to allow the pilot to easily assimilate the multitude of information he received.
The term "human factors" has grown increasingly popular as the commercial aviation industry has realized that human error, rather than mechanical failure, underlies most aviation accidents and incidents. From a technical point of view, any new technology calls for a period of adaptation to eliminate residual problems and to allow users to adapt to it. This period can take several years, with successive cycles of optimization for design, training, and regulation.
In “An introduction to Human Factors Engineering”, writers describe the capabilities and limitations of the human operator—both physical and mental—and how these should be used to guide the design of systems with which people interact. General principles of human-system interaction and design are presented, and included are specific examples of successful and unsuccessful interactions......
