Scott and I were hanging out with some friends at a bar in Chicago. Hey it is St. Patrick's day. Didn't wear my Green Hornet outfit...left it at home.
The last two years, we are all catching the ethnography and human factors fever. I guess it is due to the proliferation of electronic devices and increased sensitivity to design. Product development people and their engineers can not longer to push out ugly products when their competitors are talking a holistic design approach. Many companies are incorporating human factors into their product development processes. There are obvious reasons to do so.
Only a few years ago, human factors was a discipline virtually ignored in the medical device and consumer electronics world. They exist mostly in the military, automobile and aerospace industries. Device design was a field normally dominated by engineers, and their main concern was whether the device functioned properly or not. How easy it was to use, how well it fit into a caregiver’s workflow, and whether the design contained the potential to prompt use errors were factors considered secondarily, if at all. Can't imagine how many die because of this error in hospitals. Error proofing is a big deal today. Everything is too complicated and nothing is easy to use, so designing for error should be a big part of any design process from websites to smart phones or insulin pump.
Human factors has its origins in the Industrial Revolution and emerged as a full-fledged discipline during World War II. It was recognized that aircraft cockpit design needed to consider the human interface for controls and displays. Design Engineers were focused on the technology while Industrial Psychologists worked to optimize the interface. In some cases, Human Factors design can affect bottom-line profitability or can be a life and death matter, e.g., you don't want to push the wrong button or mistake meters for kilometers in a spacecraft. Companies came to realize that a products success is dependent upon good Human Factors design.
Many consumer device companies are incorporating principles of human factors and ergonomics into their designs. Some are hiring human factors experts for their staffs, while others are using consultants. More devices go through some form of usability testing before hitting the market. There are a number of reasons why the human factors discipline is finally catching on in the medical device industry.
Unfortunately, there are an equal number of reasons why it still hasn’t caught on in parts of the sector. The increasing competitiveness in certain sectors of the device industry is contributing to added use of human factors in design. As a few companies adopt the philosophy, others are following suit.
Human factors is still outside the dictionary of marketing. Not see what it takes to get marketers to see the importance of that.
