From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Vision-themed Potpourri

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Vision-themed Potpourri

Today’s potpourri happens to be related to understanding or enhancing what your users see (or don’t see):

Google Browser Size let’s you see how much of your web content is visible by users.
Rocker Lou Reed (of the Velvet Underground) designs an iPhone app for near-sighted users.  It basically increases the font size in the contacts application.  It appears that Mr. [...]

Read the full article →

Encouraging Sanitary Behavior at the Urinal

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Encouraging Sanitary Behavior at the Urinal

From reader Scot M. comes this NPR story. To encourage proper “aiming” at urinals, some places are now placing images of bugs so that men have something to aim toward. I’ve seen these at Schiphol Airport as well as my local grocery store bathroom (and I live in a tiny town).
Keiboom in Amsterdam says the original fly idea [...]

Read the full article →

Database Three: Mining safety data

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Database Three: Mining safety data

This post is part of a series on free data available to curious researchers and professionals:
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
This database contains more searching capability than browsing. You need the specific geographic location of a mine before searching (state, county).
Once you zero in on a particular mine, the types of reports available are:

Overview
Inspections
Accidents
Violations
VPID ( Violations Per Inspection Day)
Health Samples
Mine [...]

Read the full article →

Database Two: Aviation safety data

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Database Two: Aviation safety data

This post is part of a series on free data available to curious researchers and professionals:
The Aviation Safety Network Database
The ASN Safety Database, updated every week, contains descriptions of over 12,200 airliner, military transport category aircraft and corporate jet aircraft safety occurrences since 1943.
Here is a link to their recording of the recent landing on the Hudson river by a [...]

Read the full article →

Human Factors in the World’s First “Purpose-Built” Law Enforcement Vehicle

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Human Factors in the World’s First “Purpose-Built” Law Enforcement Vehicle

In the near future, you may see one of these cars in your rear-view mirror. They are new purpose-built law enforcement vehicles that will appear in 2012. I found this press release while searching for something else on the web. The cockpit was designed with human factors input from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI):

[...]

Read the full article →

HF Potpourri

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for HF Potpourri

More potpourri from the web:

Jakob Nielsen has a new book on using eye-tracking in web usability. View a 32 page chapter PDF (26 mb) for free (via PhotoshopSupport).
Using autistics for software quality-control work. Would this work for usability? An obsessive attention to detail is good for design/usability (via Slashdot)
The HF/usability company HumanCentric held an internal competition to [...]

Read the full article →

Pssssst! Free occupational safety data!

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Pssssst! Free occupational safety data!

Do you love databases? Especially if you are interested in safety, there are a number of carefully archived databases of events out there. A couple of years ago, I found one of these while trying to answer the question “What kinds of human factors interventions would be most increase agricultural safety?” Six months of coding later, I had some [...]

Read the full article →

Data visualization tools

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Data visualization tools

Foreshadowing Anne’s upcoming series of posts on large, public, and free data sets, here are two interesting tools to help you visualize massive quantities of data. First, my grad student Margaux informed me of Google Fusion Tables (shown above). The site lets you upload data and visualize it in different ways. The website has some samples.
From the [...]

Read the full article →

Human Factors and Healthcare: The older patient & nurse

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Human Factors and Healthcare: The older patient & nurse

I‘ve recently published two papers on the topic of human factors and healthcare. Each paper covers a different “stakeholder”: the older patient and the nurse.  The first paper is available for free but the second paper (a collaboration with my architect colleague Dina Battisto) is available at your local library (or you can request a PDF reprint from me).
Pak, R., [...]

Read the full article →

Medication Adherence Case Study

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for Medication Adherence Case Study

I talked with an 80 year old man last weekend about how he remembers to take his medication. His solution?
Put all the pills in one bottle and take out what he needs each day. It appears to be an anti-organizer.
If you or your loved ones are more interested in environmental support, a new free application created by Consumer Reports [...]

Read the full article →

Smells like more potpourri

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Smells like more potpourri

The end of the academic semester is upon us in the U.S. so we’re backed up with deadlines which is why we’re having Potpourri again for lunch. But tasty potpourri:
First, a curmudgeonly three-part series on things that give too little feedback or have too few buttons:

I just got an iPod Shuffle which uses a system of taps on an [...]

Read the full article →

The Toyota Saga Continues…

by Anne McLaughlin
Thumbnail image for The Toyota Saga Continues…

Update of an earlier post topic. From Consumer Reports:
Analysis shows over 40-percent of sudden acceleration complaints involve Toyotas
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

Share/Save

Read the full article →

Usability/Design/HF Potpourri

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Usability/Design/HF Potpourri

Just in time for the end of the year:  Top 10 interaction design books from Kicker Studio
Making cooking safe for the blind (via Real World Design)
Deciding when you need graphics (via uxforward)
We’ve posted before about the man who designs the UIs in movies, but Gizmodo has posted his new streaming demo reel…fascinating.
How will reading change with e-books?  (via Twitter/Steve Portigal)
Traffic [...]

Read the full article →

Web-based tool to measure task workload

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Web-based tool to measure task workload

I frequently use the NASA TLX workload assessment tool to measure a user’s perceived workload after they complete a task (e.g., complete an information search task). When the test is administered with paper it can be quite laborious to administer and score. A stand-alone computer-based version has been available but has some usability issues itself. For [...]

Read the full article →

Driving and Writing: Audi MMI

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for Driving and Writing: Audi MMI

The new Audi A8 sedan has a novel text entry input system:  writing.  Instead of using a knob (an indirect velocity control) or touchscreen (direct position control), the system accepts input using a touch sensitive pad (indirect position control) that can recognize letter input:
This seems to be an improvement over current systems that make you use an indirect input device [...]

Read the full article →

HFBlog at HFES 2009 in San Antonio

by Richard Pak
Thumbnail image for HFBlog at HFES 2009 in San Antonio

We were at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual conference in San Antonio.  This post is merely here to collect our six-part posts on various talks.  These only scratch the surface of what was presented.

Part 1:  The Mechanical Bull
Part 2:  Eliciting knowledge structures
Part 3:  Health, Internet, and ROBOTS!
Part 4:  Hearing and understanding
Part 5:  Rich gets lost (Automation/Trust)
Part 6:  More [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries