From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Quick note: Usability of Electronic Health Records

by Richard Pak

Related to my previous rant blog post on the un-usability of electronic health records, usability consulting company User Centric has just released two white papers on the usability of these systems.
Just for clarification, electronic health records (EHRs) are what the doctor uses to manage your test results, etc., and personal health records (PHRs) are what consumers use to manage their [...]

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The Human Factors “elevator speech”

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for The Human Factors “elevator speech”

I was in the elevator with someone from our college grants office and a colleague who does research on medical devices and human factors (and is currently teaching a seminar on the topic).
She asked my colleague, “what does psychology have to do with medical equipment?”
After giving her a few sentences about the importance of understanding user capabilities and limitations, she [...]

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It’s Right There, Right on your Left

by Anne McLaughlin

Found this sign at a rock climbing gym, then watched three groups of people do the opposite of what the sign requests, despite reading it.

Share/Save

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Google PowerMeter

by Richard Pak

We’ve spoken before about the role of human factors in energy conservation. It looks like Google is taking a big step toward raising awareness of home energy usage from your desktop.  With the installation of home energy meters, you may soon be able to track your own power usage:
Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart [...]

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High-tech Grandma

by Richard Pak

This really isn’t human factors related other than the fact that my research interests include older adults and the web.  Just to give you a teaser, here is some of the grandmother’s dialog:
The other day, I was hacking around thinking I was running port forwarding my POP packets through SSH encrypted tunnels.  Turns out I got the port number wrong [...]

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No More “Reply All” at Marketing Company

by Anne McLaughlin

Link to original article and follow up:
We have noticed that the “Reply to All” functionality results in unnecessary inbox clutter. Beginning Thursday we will eliminate this function, allowing you to reply only to the sender. Responders who want to copy all can do so by selecting the names or using a distribution list.
Eliminating the “Reply to All” function will:
• Require [...]

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