ergonomics

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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ATM Accessibility (not)

January 3, 2012

I’m catching up on some older topics I never blogged about. This is one of my favorites. The Consumerist posted a video of a blind user interacting with an ATM. As they said, “Overall, it seems like whoever designed the ATM didn’t ask a blind person to try it out first.” Quotes from the video: (Re: finding the headphone jack) [...]

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Beyond Touch: the future of interaction

November 9, 2011
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Follow the link to read “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design” by Bret Victor. The briefest of summaries would be that we over-use simple touch in our visions of the future, when we could be including many other cues, such as weight and balance. From the post: If you’re with me so far, maybe I can nudge [...]

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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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Resources: Human Factors Design Considerations in Home Health Technology

July 19, 2011

The National Academies of Science and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have just released two publications. The first, Health Care Comes Home, is a 200 page report: Health Care Comes Home reviews the state of current knowledge and practice about many aspects of health care in residential settings and explores the short- and long-term effects of emerging trends and technologies. [...]

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“The Capacitive Button Cult Must Be Stopped”

July 5, 2011

I completely agree: A capacitive button has no place on a phone, and the people who are pushing it into the marketplace are over-fetishizing visual design to the detriment of the overall experience. Which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Nokia seems to think otherwise. Design Dare via Daring Fireball

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For projectors, new technology means new training (and new errors!)

May 23, 2011
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Mode errors! Coming soon to a theater near you? Have you ever forgotten to set your camera back to Auto from Portrait? How about not understanding what those modes mean? Apparently a similar phenomenon occurs in the professional world of movie theaters. There is a special lens filter used for 3-D movies and when it is not removed for normal [...]

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Driven to Distraction

April 19, 2011
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This editorial from MSN Autos nicely summarizes a topic we’ve covered many times:  in-car technology interfering with driving.  The central problem appears to be that in-car interfaces are designed in isolation–devoid of the context in which they will actually be used (while driving).  So the designs demand a high amount of attention and concentration. Expert on human-automation interaction Dr. John D. [...]

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Scroll direction, touch screens, trackpads

March 2, 2011
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When we interact with a touch screen, we expect a certain “directness”; that is, if I grab something and push up, I expect that thing to move up.  Like dragging a web page up or down.  However, did you ever notice that on a track pad (like on a laptop), the direction is reversed? Trackpad:  fingers move DOWN, position indicator goes [...]

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Unintended Consequences of Design: Keyless Ignition Revisited

February 21, 2011
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Peter Hancock, writing in the January issue of The Ergonomist, writes about the hidden dangers imposed by rapidly advancing automotive technology (noise, vibration suppression, keyless ignition).  Noise, vibration, sound, and the mechanical key provides useful information that the car is still on.  Removing these cues could result in mode errors: In previous generations of vehicles, leaving the car ‘on’ as you [...]

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Designing Displays for Older Adults: Chapter 3 Hearing (excerpt)

December 29, 2010

Below is an excerpt of Chapter 3 from our book.  You can read an excerpt of chapter 1 here. You can also enter to win one of two copies.  The book is available where fine books are sold or directly from our publisher CRC Press.  Until January 31, 2011, you can get 20% off the cover price when you purchase directly from [...]

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Accidental Activation During Seat Adjustment on Plane

December 1, 2010
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CNN posted this story where a co-pilot accidentally bumped a control while adjusting his seat, sending the plane into a 26 degree dive. Disaster was only averted by the pilot returning from the restroom, as apparently the co-pilot lacked the training to correct the error. From the article: The aviation agency report concluded that the 25-year-old co-pilot had not been [...]

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Ergonomic Advice from Star Trek

August 5, 2010

From xadamx via Gizmodo.

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The Human Factors of Weapons

July 16, 2010

James R. in California sends along a tragic story of police officer confusing his taser with his firearm.  The news story can be found here.  Here’s what James says: Here in CA there is a big to do over the shooting death of a young man (Oscar Grant) by a BART police officer Johannes Mehserle.  Apparently, Mr. Grant was being [...]

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Human Factors and Health care: Tackling Inefficiencies

July 12, 2010
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I came across two examples of human factors angles in health care. The first is from the NPR show Planet Money.  The show focuses on how much inefficiency and waste there is in medical billing. The whole podcast is worth listening to, but there is one bit that made me laugh out loud (fast-forward to 10:35). Codes (NDC number) are [...]

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Users: Are they the people using the towels or the people replacing the towels?

May 13, 2010

Answer: They are hopelessly intertwined.

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