Fundamentals of Human Factors

podcast episode

People not only use your product, they assemble it, move and store it. If a person is not able to interact with your product, with or without the manual, they may consider your product a failure. Designing in the ability for an individual to properly use your product is the art of considering human factors.

Human factors, along with hardware and software elements of your product are the three main consideration within system reliability. Every interaction with a person has design considerations that done well create an easy and enjoyable product to use.

From the design of knurls on buttons or handles, to location of the power switch, from the enclosure size, to the location of lift handles, from screen brightness, to size of oon-screen text, and an amazing array of elements of a product require consideration of how a person will use or misuse your product.

Let’s discuss some basic elements of human factors, where you can find more information to improve your design, and how to gather relevant information to enhance your product. Human factors done well improves your product’s reliability performance. While I’m not a human factors design expert, I’ve certainly learned a few things on the topic over the years.

Bring your questions and favorite human factor tips, best practices, and disasters for this interactive and hopefully fun event.

This Accendo Reliability webinar originally broadcast on 9 October 2018.