Human Factors Minute

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! As with any complex event, a variety of factors combined to cause the Chernobyl disaster. These causes illustrate exactly how Human Factors touches many parts of an overall system's design. The incident occurred during experiments to test the operation of the independent power supply, in the event of loss of external power sources. The plant was operate...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Cybersecurity Technical Group. The CYBERSECURITY TECHNICAL GROUP (CYTG) was established to serve HFES members and nonmembers who share an interest in studying humans in th...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The Board of certification in professional ergonomics provides professional certification for practitioners of human factors/ergonomics and user experience (HF/E/UX) who demonstrate expertise and comprehensive understanding of the discipline. Employers and consumers know they are working with a professional who has met a rigorous standard. BCPE provides...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Human performance modeling (HPM) is a traditional human factors method of quantifying human behavior, cognition, and processes; it's a tool used by human factors researchers and practitioners for both the analysis of human function and for the development of systems designed for optimal user experience and interaction. The goal of most human performance...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The Chernobyl disaster was caused by a nuclear accident that occurred in April 1986, in the north Ukrainian SSR and is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history. The accident occurred during a safety test on an RBMK-type nuclear reactor, commonly used throughout the Soviet Union. The test was a simulation of an electrical power outage to aid the...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Computer Systems Technical Group. The Computer Systems Technical Group (CSTG) works to ensure that all users of computer systems are able to accomplish their goals while e...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! It is commonly believed that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous. People often suggest that talking on a cell phone is similar to talking with in-vehicle passengers, or adjusting the radio. And aren't children an even bigger distraction? These are common opinions and questions, but they all are based on a poor foundation of the problem of Driv...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field of study focusing on the design of computer technology and, in particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and computers. While initially concerned with computers, HCI has since expanded to cover almost all forms of information technology design. HCI surfaced in the 1980s with the...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. With roots in activity theory, task analysis is a way of systematically describing human interaction with a system or process to understand how to match the demands of the system...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Communications Technical Group The Communications Technical consists of people interested in all aspects of human factors as applied to communication systems. This include...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Machine guarding is an important human factors aspect of human machine interaction and design. Manufacturers must provide effective guards to separate operators, in time or distance, from a potential hazards while using machines. Adjustable guards often provide reasonble safe and efficient operation. Machine guards are often modified or removed by the w...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Human Systems Integration (HSI) is a robust process by which practitioners design and develop systems that effectively integrate human capabilities and limitations. HSI is a multidisciplinary field of study composed of several basic areas: Human Factors Engineering, System Safety, Health Hazards, Personnel Survivability, Manpower,Personnel,Training,Habi...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Subjects-in-tandem, also known as "Co-Discovery" is a methodology employed where two subjects are asked to work concurrently on a series of tasks while vocalizing their analytical observations. Using this technique, participants can feed off of each other's comments to generate a richer set of observations than is normally possible with the participants...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Children's Issues Technical Group The Children's Issues Technical Group (CITG) consists of individuals interested in research, design, and applications concerning human fa...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Slips, trips, and falls are the most common premise liability cases that benefit from human factors testimony. Property owners must maintain safe premises. The question often remains: "Was the trip hazard open and obvious?" Several human factors principles relate to the ability of a pedestrian to detect and identify a trip hazard, including lighting, co...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The driving environment requires the successful performance of a highly complex series of interconnected tasks, including navigating, speed regulation, observing posted signs and signals, and responding to unpredictable events in a safe and timely manner. Through experience, the cognitive processing demands of driving is greatly reduced, leading many to...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies. Meta-analysis can be performed when there are multiple scientific studies addressing the same question, with each individual study reporting measurements that are expected to have some degree of error. The aim is to use approaches from statistics to deriv...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the Aging technical group The Aging Technical Group (ATG) is a community of professionals from industry, academia, and government organizations who share a common interest in...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! What began as an informal group who met for lunch at HFES, HFE Woman became a group of women dedicated to celebrating diversity within the society, specifically by creating an informal setting where issues related to women can be discussed. As others expressed interest in joining, their size and the scope of their vision grew. HFE Woman organizes a vari...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Surveys and questionnaires are commonly used reserach techniques that are used across multiple disciplines including human factors. Surveys and questionnaires have an advantage in that they can be administered to a large group of people, using e-mail for example, at relatively low cost, enabling the researcher to gather a large amount of data in a short...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Ethnographic analysis, or the study of ethnography, is a branch of Human Factors that involves the direct study of people and cultures. The purpose of ethnographic analysis is to allow scientists to observe their subjects on the ground level, interacting with them as another person would instead of creating a scientist-subject relationship. Ethnographic...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Did you know that the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society has 24 technical groups that are concerned with the human factors aspects of specific application areas? One of those is the AEROSPACE SYSTEMS TECHNICAL GROUP. This Technical Group is concerned with the application of human factors to the development, design, certification, operation, and mainte...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Biomechanics is the application of the principles of mechanics and physics to measure the forces exerted by and upon living forms. Occupational biomechanics is the application of these principles to the measurement of forces exerted by and upon the human body during the performance of work. These measurements are used to determine physical work performa...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! Where the parameters of User Experience appear fairly cut and dry, the Customer Experience is more conceptual in nature, and is typically used as an all-encompassing term. The Customer Experience Professionals Association defines customer experience as: The sum of all the interactions that a customer has with a company over the course of the relationshi...

...and now for another Human Factors Minute! The International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) offers keynotes, workshops, and networking opportunities with professionals that span from the application of human factors in disease control to the impact of neuroergonomics in cognitive engineering. The AHFE conference objective is to provide an international forum for the di...