Human factors engineering and ergonomics

Human factors engineering is an absolute passion of the usability consulting team at Interpix Design, as exemplified by Murray Sanders' studies years ago, in Information Systems and Human Behavior (along with some later studies in Human Computer Interaction and Usability of Multimedia Design), and Jamie Ingham's long term membership in the Human Factoring and Engineering Society.

Human factors engineering, to provide a definition, is the science of understanding cognition and human understanding as applied to the design and development of technological and other systems. It is generally accounted as synonymous with ergonomics. Human factors applies the understanding of human capacities and limitations to attempt to create optimally useful interactions with any system, either natural or artificial. This performance includes factors such as safety, speed, comfort and a variety of other relevant facets. Human factors engineering is consistently and persistently important in the development of new interfaces and new technology; throughout the history of technological innovation, human factors have been devalued, often to the detriment of adaptation of products or brands.

Human factors engineering, as applied at Interpix Design is core to every project we take on and participate in, and in fifteen plus years in the field, we have developed unique expertise in the area.

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The benefits of human factors design
Human factors engineering (HFE) can (and should!) be applied to the development of any new product that aims to be taken seriously by the market. Through user testing, prototyping, field studies or a simple heuristic review, human factors engineering and ergonomic design has been shown to be critical to improving ease of use, increasing safety, optimizing satisfaction, reducing errors and mistakes and - most important for companies - easing adaptation and integration into users' or customers' workflow.

Applied to design, human factors engineering is basically synonymous with usability and user centred design. Since the design of a product ought to take place before the product is even developed, this is the ideal time to integrate human factors. Of course, this is not always the case, especially in the case of usability engineering for web interfaces (and the use of the word 'design' is applied in a very different way, when talking about websites over other products).

No matter what stage you are at in your design, though, we can help.