"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."
The study of how humans interact with technology, including in aviation. Understanding human factors is important for designing aircraft and ensuring safety in aviation.
Human performance: This refers to the study of how humans interact with complex systems and the factors that influence their performance.
Human error: This refers to the contributions of human error from a cognitive and social engineering perspective. It includes the study of decision-making, attention, memory, and stress.
Human-machine interaction: This refers to the design of technology and interfaces that maximize human performance and minimize error. It includes the study of displays, controls, and feedback.
Crew resource management: This refers to the skills and procedures developed to improve teamwork, communication, and decision making in the aviation industry.
Aviation safety culture: This refers to the cultural and organizational factors that affect safety in aviation. It includes the study of safety management systems, incident reporting, and the use of checklists.
Human factors engineering: This refers to the design and development of systems, products, and services to improve human performance and safety. It includes the study of anthropometry, ergonomics, and user-centered design.
Environmental factors: This refers to the impact of environmental factors on human performance and safety. It includes the study of lighting, noise, vibration, and temperature.
Human factors in aviation accidents: This refers to the investigation of accidents and incidents in aviation from a human factors perspective. It includes the study of human factors in crash investigations and the development of accident prevention strategies.
Psycho-social factors: This refers to the impact of individual and group behavior on human performance and safety. It includes the study of personality, motivation, communication, leadership, and organizational behavior.
Human factors in air traffic management: This refers to the study of the interactions between pilots, air traffic controllers, and ground personnel. It includes the study of communication, decision-making, and coordination.
Physical Human Factors: This type of factor refers to physical abilities and limitations such as vision, hearing, height, weight, and strength.
Psychological Human Factors: This category involves mental and emotional states such as stress, fatigue, motivation, attitude, and personality.
Cognitive Human Factors: This factor relates to human information processing capabilities, including attention, perception, decision making, and problem-solving.
Social Human Factors: This factor pertains to interpersonal relationships, communication, teamwork, and leadership.
Organizational Human Factors: This is a complex factor that pertains to the impact of the working environment, culture, policies, practices, and management systems.
Environmental Human Factors: This factor concerns with the external environment conditions that impact human performance, such as temperature, noise, vibration, light, and altitude.
Medical Human Factors: This represents the health and medical condition of pilots and crew members and includes factors such as physical and mental fitness, medication use, and illness.
Training and Education Human Factors: This factor considers how well-trained and well-educated pilots are, including their level of skill and experience, training availability, and training methods.
Human Error: This factor pertains to the causes and consequences of human errors, including situational errors, cognitive errors, and operational errors.
Human Factors Engineering: This factor concerns with the aircraft design and engineering that supports human performance, such as cockpit design, displays, and controls.
"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."