"Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors engineering or HFE) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems."
: Designing for comfort, safety, and ease-of-use.
Anthropometry: The study of human body measurements and dimensions, which are used to design products that are comfortable and safe for users.
Biomechanics: The study of human movement and the forces involved when people perform tasks, which impact the design of products and equipment.
Cognitive psychology: The study of how people process and use information, which informs the design of interfaces, displays, and other features.
Human-computer interaction: The study of how humans interact with technology, which impacts the design of digital products and interfaces.
Usability research: The study of how well products and interfaces work for users, which includes metrics like performance, learnability, and satisfaction.
Information design: The design of visual displays and graphics that effectively communicate information to users.
Environmental factors: The study of how the physical environment affects human behavior and performance, which can influence the design of spaces and products.
Safety engineering: The study of how to prevent accidents and injuries, which informs the design of products that are safe to use.
Human physiology: The study of how the human body works and how it responds to different conditions and stimuli, which can impact the design of products and equipment.
Cultural factors: The study of how culture influences human behavior and expectations, which can inform the design of products that are tailored to different audiences.
Cognitive Ergonomics: It involves designing products that align with the cognitive processes of the end-users. In other words, it aims at making the product comfortable to use without causing mental fatigue.
Physical Ergonomics: This type focuses on the body movements and physical capability of the end-users, considering their strength, height, reachability, and other physical attributes.
Organizational Ergonomics: It involves designing products that fit into the working environment of the end-users, ensuring that the layout or design doesn't cause stress or trouble adapting.
Environmental Ergonomics: This type of Ergonomics focuses on External factors such as temperature, lighting, noise, and air quality, ensuring that these factors don't cause any discomfort to the end-users.
User Experience (UX) Design: UX design revolves around ensuring that the product is enjoyable and easy to use, and the user feels satisfied while using it.
Sociotechnical Systems: It is a design approach that considers the interaction between technology and social structures, ensuring that the product is socially acceptable and doesn't result in any negative social outcomes.
Human-Machine Interaction: It focuses on designing the interface between humans and machines. It aims at developing products that are easy to use and intuitive.
Safety Engineering: It focuses on designing products that are safe to use, which means considering materials, installation requirements, transportation, and assembly requirements.
Accessibility Design: Accessibility design aims at designing products that can be easily used by people with disabilities, ensuring inclusivity.
Affective Engineering: Affective engineering involves designing products with a focus on eliciting positive emotions from end-users by using a range of stimuli such as colors, visuals, and sounds.
"The primary goals of human factors engineering are to reduce human error, increase productivity and system availability, and enhance safety, health and comfort with a specific focus on the interaction between the human and equipment."
"The field is a combination of numerous disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, engineering, biomechanics, industrial design, physiology, anthropometry, interaction design, visual design, user experience, and user interface design."
"Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design to optimize human well-being and overall system performance."
"Human factors engineering is relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines and equipment."
"Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability."
"Human factors and ergonomics are concerned with the 'fit' between the user, equipment, and environment or 'fitting a job to a person' or 'fitting the task to the man'."
"To assess the fit between a person and the used technology, human factors specialists or ergonomists consider the job (activity) being done and the demands on the user; the equipment used (its size, shape, and how appropriate it is for the task), and the information used (how it is presented, accessed, and changed)."
"Ergonomics draws on many disciplines in its study of humans and their environments, including anthropometry, biomechanics, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, industrial design, information design, kinesiology, physiology, cognitive psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and space psychology."
"Human factors research employs methods and approaches from these and other knowledge disciplines to study human behavior and generate data relevant to previously stated goals."