{"id":22134,"date":"2020-12-27T09:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T13:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=22134"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:20:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T04:20:22","slug":"human-factors-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/human-factors-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Factors in Design: What to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What are human factors in design? Should designers take human imperfection into account when designing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Human factors in design may take into account psychology, physical restrictions, and more. Designing for imperfect humans is one strategy of human-centric design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to find out about human factors in design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Human Factors in Design: <strong>Designing for Imperfect Humans<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If \u201chuman errors\u201d are really \u201csystem errors,&#8221; then designers are ultimately responsible for preventing those errors whenever possible. The goal is not to design a perfect system, but rather a system that anticipates inevitable errors, provides helpful feedback to correct those errors, and has no \u2018slippery slopes\u2019 where one small mistake can set off a catastrophic chain reaction. Here are some specific recommendations for designers to put this into practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/seligman-positive-psychology\/\">Positive psychology<\/a><\/strong>: See user \u201cerrors\u201d as feedback for where the design needs improvement. Instead of traditional error messages, provide feedback on the problem that allows the user to fix it immediately, without starting over or losing progress on the parts they\u2019ve done correctly.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Root cause analysis:<\/strong> When users struggle, continue asking \u201cwhy\u201d until you find the underlying problem. This fixes both the initial problem and any downstream problems that may stem from it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Think back to the seven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/stages-of-design\/\">stages of design<\/a>, and the questions posed by each stage. As a reminder, here are the seven stages and seven questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Goal: What result do I want to achieve?<\/li><li>Plan: What options do I have for achieving my goal?<\/li><li>Specify: Which of these options will I choose?<\/li><li>Perform: How do I execute my plan?<\/li><li>Perceive: What happened when I did that?<\/li><li>Interpret: What does that result mean?<\/li><li>Compare: Did I reach my goal?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Users should be able to answer each of these questions easily. Designers can use the following tools to provide these answers when it comes to human factors in design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Discoverability: <\/strong>Users can easily figure out how to use the device, even without background knowledge.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Feedback:<\/strong> The device gives immediate, meaningful information in response to user commands. It also gives baseline information (whether power is on, if maintenance is needed, etc).&nbsp;<ul><li>Feedback should happen within 0.1 seconds of an action. Any longer and users may not automatically connect the feedback to their action.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Conceptual model: <\/strong>The way the device works is easy to understand, even when important <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/affordance-design\/\">affordances<\/a> are hidden.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Affordances:<\/strong> The device performs the functions users need. This must be true for all potential users, not just the average user.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Signifiers: <\/strong>Where affordances are not obvious, the device draws the user\u2019s attention to them with signs, visible hardware, beeping, etc.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Mappings: <\/strong>Controls for the device are laid out in a logical way that gives clues as to which controls go with which functions.<\/li><li><strong>Constraints: <\/strong>The device\u2019s affordances are limited by physical and cultural constraints that help users narrow down potential functions. (Constraints are covered more thoroughly in Chapter 3.)<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are human factors in design? Should designers take human imperfection into account when designing? Human factors in design may take into account psychology, physical restrictions, and more. Designing for imperfect humans is one strategy of human-centric design. Keep reading to find out about human factors in design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,34,9],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-22134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-the-design-of-everyday-things","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Human Factors in Design: What to Consider - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Should you take into account human factors in design? Human factors like human psychology may affect how you design. 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