transportation

Automakers: Don’t skimp on the interface!

February 27, 2011
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A very angry but insightful comment about the vehicle electronic interface of the 2011 Buick Regal from an automotive journalist: Non touchscreen touchscreen: The GM navigation system and the graphics for it are designed with a touchscreen in mind — when entering in a destination, there is a recreation of a keyboard that allows you to punch in your letters and [...]

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Honesty Hurts (especially when design is poor)

February 15, 2011
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I enjoy the mix of economics and psychology, which is why I am a faithful reader of the Freakanomics blog. Their recent podcast on “pain” started off with a good human-factors-related tale of the problematic design of a subway alarm system. I have included a link below to the podcast, but the quick overview is that there is an ear [...]

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Blogging APA Division 21: “One Thing at a Time” (but over a really long time)

November 21, 2010

I held off for a while writing this post because I wanted to make sure I could include media Dr. John Senders included in his talk. I think you’ll agree it was worth the wait! At the 2010 APA convention, John W. Senders, Ph.D. presented “One Thing at a Time: From Eye Fixations (1951), to Sampling (1954), to Information Theory [...]

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11 feet 8 inches

September 2, 2010

A train trestle in Durham, NC has a clearance of 11’8″. The typical height of a large rental truck ranges from 11’6″ (don’t bounce!) to 13’6″. How often do you think about clearance when driving? Do you think you could adjust to thinking about it 100% of the time in your rental truck? I’ve seen parking garages that have a [...]

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Redesigning Toyota’s Keyless Ignition System

February 10, 2010
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The LA Times reporters Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian recently wrote a story about keyless ignition systems and the associated HF issues (we blogged about it here).  In a follow-up story, they report that Toyota is considering redesigning the system so that instead of requiring a single 3-second press to shut off the engine, it now requires 3 consecutive presses.  [...]

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Keyless Ignition in Emergencies: Do you know what to do?

January 27, 2010
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This story in the LA Times illustrates several important HF/usability issues.  First, the  importance of knowing what the user knows before introducing new, seemingly “simple” technology, or changing the way they currently do things (in this case, what people know about ignition systems and how they start their cars).  Second, like the story about the alarms, it also clearly illustrates [...]

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Pssssst! Free occupational safety data!

December 11, 2009
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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 answers [...]

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“Replicants are like any other machine – they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.”

September 19, 2009

Electric cars are utterly silent making them hazardous when they sneak up on you at low speeds.  Nissan is thinking about having their Leaf electric car emit the whine reminiscent of the flying cars in Bladerunner.  It’s one of my favorite movies so I approve! “We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, [...]

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HF/Usability Hodgepodge

August 28, 2009

Things too small for their own post but interesting nonetheless…it’s a hodgepodge, a mélange, a potpourri! Stay in touch with those who don’t have or want a computer (via Gadgeteer) “upgrading customer usability without breaking the bank” (via UXforward) If Craigslist got a makeover, what might it look like? (Wired) Men and women use car navigation systems differently (GPSworld)

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Ford’s Use of Personas in Design

July 18, 2009
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This NYT article delves into the use of personas at Ford Motor Company.  The article is written to imply that the use of personas (or archetypes as they call it) is novel.  It also delves uncomfortably and unnecessarily into Jungian psychology (psychological archetypes, eh?). But many designers and user experience people have been using personas for quite a while.  The [...]

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Electric Scooters and their Warnings: A Guest Post by Kim Wolfinbarger

June 16, 2009
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Electric shopping carts are common in large grocery stores. Essential for users with mobility impairments, they are also helpful for pregnant women, elderly shoppers, and other who have trouble walking long distances. A few months ago, my grandfather overturned such a cart in a parking lot and broke his hip. Interested in what might have caused the accident, I examined [...]

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Emergency Checklists and Aviation

June 10, 2009

The recent water landing into the Hudson is still being investigated. This AP article focuses on whether flight attendants were trained not to open the back door of the plane during a water landing, but the most interesting bit comes at the end: Another concern is whether the FAA and airlines need to revise emergency procedures for pilots in the [...]

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Accidental Activation Activates Fighter Jet Escort

May 12, 2009

Apparently there is a particular communication channel airlines use when they have been hijacked. This afternoon, an American Airlines flight was escorted by fighter jets to Miami when the channel was set on a flight from Puerto Rico. This interface error sounds expensive. Can we assume the flight crew did not know they were using this frequency?

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Human Factors Potpourri (again)

April 23, 2009

Here are some more human factors-related items that have crossed my blog reader: Twitter is hot!  Oprah recently twittered on her show and apparently fell victim to a usability problem:  the update button was non-obvious so she never posted her tweet (Touch usability) Fellow HFE blog Real World Usability will be posting updates of the Ergonomics Society Conference via Twitter [...]

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User Perception of Automobile Brands

January 14, 2009

I often hear people in HF say their users “don’t always know what they want” or that users want something that isn’t good for them. (One example might be a touch screen when a touch screen is not appropriate.) Consumer Reports lists the top automobile models by perception of a brand in certain categories. The categories they used were: safety [...]

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Interface aid for hyper-milers

November 26, 2008
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I have at least one friend who admits to “hyper miling,” or watching the MPG gauge at all times and trying to keep his average as high as possible. In one way I find this to be a fascinating task that one could use to study multiple-cue learning, pattern recognition, or adoption of superstitious behavior. (After all, was it kicking [...]

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