The FIM-92 Stinger missile system is widely recognized as a technological success. It’s a lightweight, shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile that can take down air threats with deadly precision. It has been in service for decades, but it almost didn’t make it out of testing.
Our world and our systems are safer than ever. A major reason why is that we’ve learned from prior mistakes. Many of our practices, rules, and standards are “written in blood” from past, tragic failures. We learn so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes. Of course, we first identify the proximate causes—the specific events directly leading to a casualty. To truly learn, we must take a step back to examine the larger context: what were the preceding holes in the Swiss cheese, and how do we account for them in our systems engineering practice? This approach is increasingly important …
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One of my favorite items in my small model collection is a 1:34 scale Grumman Long Life Vehicle (LLV) with sliding side doors, a roll-up rear hatch, and pull-back propulsion. The iconic vehicle has been plying our city streets for nearly 40 years, reliably delivering critical communiques, bills, checks, advertisements, Dear John letters, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, post cards from afar, chain letters, and Amazon packages.
The Navy installed touch-screen steering systems to save money. Ten sailors paid with their lives. ProPublica Ten sailors died after the crew of the destroyer USS John S. McCain lost control of their vessel, causing a collision with the merchant tanker Alnic MC. There was nothing technically wrong with the vessel or its controls. Though much of the blame was put on the Sailors and Officers aboard, the real fault rests with the design of the Integrated Bridge & Navigation System (IBNS).
Recently, the head of a college human factors program asked for my perspective on the human factors and user experience skills valued in industry. Here are five critical qualities that emerged from our discussion, in no particular order:
Murphy’s Law isn’t about putting your fate in the hands of the universe, it’s about defensive and robust design. Reliability engineering and the technique of Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) have their roots in this concept.
Human performance is a major factor in overall system performance and humans are increasingly the bottleneck for system performance. Human factors engineering design drives human performance and thus system performance.
The term ergonomics was coined by Wojciech Jastrzębowski in 1857 to mean “the science of work” with the goal of improving productivity and profit. He described the importance of physical, emotional, entertainment, and rational aspects of the labor and employee experience, but the context was squarely on factory-type production. Over time, this has evolved into two, slightly different definitions.
Human factors engineering (HFE) is a broad and multidisciplinary field that designs and evaluates the human interfaces of a system. That definition masks a lot of complexity, let’s explore the nuances.
UX is very much a type of human factors. UX extends the scope of consideration beyond the product itself to any interface which might affect the user’s perceptions and feelings of the product. Yet, the goal is the same: understand the human’s needs in order to design interfaces that meet them.