Richard Pak

Two New HF Blogs

May 14, 2012

Just a short note about two new HF-oriented blogs.  First, Arathi Sethumadhavan Ph.D. has started a new blog. Arathi Sethumadhavan is a Human Factors Scientist at Medtronic’s Cardiac Rhythm and Disease Management. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology (Human Factors) from Texas Tech University.  Second, Ergonomics in Design, a publication of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, has started [...]

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Who’s responsible when the robot (or automation) is wrong?

April 23, 2012
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Interesting research (PDF link) on how people behave when robots are wrong. In a recent paper, researchers created a situation where a robot mis-directed a human in a game. In follow-up interviews, one of the striking findings that caught my eye was: When asked whether Robovie was a living being, a technology, or something in-between, participants were about evenly split [...]

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Distracted Learning

April 4, 2012

In addition to distracted driving, and walking, now there is increasing awareness of distracted learning.  This has long been a problem in academic circles but it’s finally getting some news coverage. Some professors in Ottawa want the right to ban laptops in class: The University of Ottawa is considering a proposal which would give its professors the power to ban [...]

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Recent Research Potpourri

March 19, 2012
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Just a small plug for some recent research from Anne and me. The topics are ones that we’ve discussed on the blog:  games and cognitive training and e-health tools.  First, Anne and colleagues recently published a paper showing that playing World of Warcraft can boost some measures of cognitive abilities in older adults: The effectiveness of a game-based cognitive training intervention on [...]

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Older adults and Windows 8

March 13, 2012

In an earlier post we discussed how illuminating simple user testing can be. The video below is computer blogger Chris Pirrilo who put his dad in front of the new Windows 8 Preview. The dad seems to be relatively sophisticated and knows about Windows 7 but is completely flummoxed by Windows 8 new “Metro” interface. Note that this is the [...]

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Revisiting an academic’s use of the iPad

March 9, 2012
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With the introduction of “the new iPad” (i.e., iPad 3) I thought it would be a good time to update one of the most popular posts on this blog. That post was about incorporating an iPad into my daily work and play routine. It was written when the iPad was first introduced in 2010 and was mostly an exploration of [...]

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I just want some gas…

March 9, 2012

Reader Nicole sends in this image from the gas pump. Can you find the button?

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Usability Follies in the News

March 7, 2012
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It’s election season which means more opportunities to point, laugh, and cry at the state of voting usability.  The first is sent in by Kim W.  As part of an NPR story, the reporter dug up a sample ballot. Pretty overwhelming and confusing (“vote for not more than one”??); makes me long for electronic voting. Next, Ford is sending out [...]

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Bad Usability Causes Cranky Babies

February 17, 2012
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I peripherally heard about another Tylenol recall and assumed the recall was prompted by tainted medicine or something.  Anne just sent me a link to the story and it is apparently usability related.  The syringe-based dosing system, called SimpleMeasure, seems to be difficult to use.  Here is what NPR says: the “SimpleMeasure” dosing system that’s supposed to make it easier [...]

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Influence of Environment on Behavior

January 4, 2012

Two articles came up that both touched upon the topic of how behavior is shaped and influenced by the environment and how we shape our immediate environment to suit particular behaviors.  The topic of how behavior is constrained by the physical environment is a long discussed topic in psychology and human factors (e.g., affordances, ecological psychology, situated cognition, “cognition in [...]

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Paper isn’t so bad…

December 15, 2011

One thing that annoys me is the silly argument that paper is bad or paper kills. Such hollow arguments are used to encourage technology adoption in airplane cockpits, the class room, and hospitals. Usually they are associated with silly statistics about how much paper is saved or how much less weight is carried, or how much easier it will be [...]

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Virtual Assistants (automation) and Etiquette

December 6, 2011

This NYT article discusses the “new” scourge of rude people interacting with their phones in public via voice thanks in large part to Siri, Apple’s new virtual assistant. This article reminded me of something slightly different about human interaction with virtual assistants or automation. In a 2004 paper, researchers Parasuraman and Miller wondered if automation that possessed human-like qualities would [...]

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Little Printer Concept

November 29, 2011

In the “why didn’t I think of this!” department, we have the Little Printer Concept by Berg.  It basically seems like a cash register thermal printer (in much nicer packaging) that sits in your home and prints messages, puzzles, etc.   I could see this being very useful for older consumers who are resistant to technology.  Imagine printing medication instructions [...]

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Speedometer Design

November 2, 2011

This page contains an interesting inventory of past speedometer designs from Chevrolet.  Quite a variety!  Is usability getting better or worse? I like it when the design works such that the prevailing speed limit (e.g., 60 MPH) lets the needle be oriented in a cardinal direction (pointed up or left) like the one below: (via Kottke)

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Winner of HFES Morning Madness

October 1, 2011

Congratualations to Stephanie Whetsel (of Clemson University) for winning the straw poll for morning madness. Her talk, entitled, “Pedestrians’ Estimates of Their Own Visibi- lity at Night Are Not Reduced When Head- lights Are Severely Weakened” made entertaining use of video clips and was an audience favorite according to the poll. A big thanks to everyone who participated with hilarious [...]

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NYT: So Many Gadgets, So Many Aches

September 11, 2011

A nice but short article in the New York Times about the ergonomic challenges with new electronic devices.  I’m pleasantly surprised that the article mentioned both physical and cognitive issues.  When most people hear or think of “ergonomics” they think of physical issues only. Most of the content will not be new to HFB readers but it’s nice that the [...]

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