ISYE6118 – Human Integrated System

Topic 1-Week 1-Session 3

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN-
INTEGRATED SYSTEM
 Learning Outcome
Explain the human’s physical;
biological and psychological of
represent the industrial problems.

To explain the scope of human

factors in human integrated system

To explain descriptive methods in

human factors
 Outline

SCOPE OF HUMAN RESEARCH METHODS- ETHICAL ISSUES CONCLUSION

FACTORS DESCRIPTIVE
METHODS
SCOPE OF HUMAN FACTORS
 Introduction
• In a factory, an assembly-line worker had to reach to an
awkward location and position a heavy component for
assembly
– What could happen?
 Introduction
• Examining the bottle of prescription medicine, an elderly
woman was unable to read the tiny of the dosage
instructions or even the red-printed safety warning beneath
it.
– What could happen?
 Human Factors
Objectives
The purpose (Goal) of human factors is to make human
interactions with systems that:

1. Enhances performance
2. Increase safety
3. Increase user satisfaction

Human factors involves the study of factors and development

of tools that facilitate the achievement of this objectives.
 Cycle of Human
Factors

FIGURE 1
The cycle of human factors. Point A identifies a cycle when human factors solutions are sought because a
problem (e.g., accident or incident) has been observed in the human– system interaction. Point B
identifies a point where good human factors are applied at the beginning of a design cycle.
 Equipment Design

Equipment • Medicine bottle  more readable

design changes label and easier to open on top part.
the nature of • The radar display on the USS Vincennes
physical might be redesigned to provide a more
integrated representation of lateral and
equipment vertical motion of the aircraft.
with human
work.
 Task Design

Task Design
• workstation for assembly-line worker is
focuses on redesigned to eliminate manual lifting.
changing what • Task design may involve assigning part
operators do or all of tasks to other workers or to
automated components
than on • a robot might be designed to
changing the accomplish the lift of the component.
devices they
use.
 Environmental Design

Environmental i.e. improved lighting, temperature

design control, and reduced noise in the
implements physical environment where the task
changes. is carried out.
 Training & Selection

Training focuses on better preparing

i.e. by teaching and practicing the
the worker for condition that she/he necessary physical or mental skills
will encounter in the job environment.

Selection is a technique that recognize the individual differences across

humans in physical and mental that is relevant for good system
performance
 Scope of Human Factors
Field of human factors originally grew out for human interaction
with physical devices (usually military or industrial).

Now, the scope has broadened greatly for the last few decades.

North American professional organization in the Human Factors

and Ergonomics Society has grown.

Figure of human factors matrix shows on how to understand the

human factors professionals do.
 Matrix of Human Factors

FIGURE 2
This matrix of human factors topics depicts human performance issues against contextual environments
within which human factors may be applied. The study of human factors may legitimately belong within any
cell or combination of cells in the matrix.
 Matrix of Human Factors

• Various components of human user that are called on by the

system in question:
– Is the information necessary to perform the task visible?
– Can it be sensed and adequately perceived?
• In our case, an assembly-line worker had to reach to an
awkward location and position a heavy component for
assembly
– Was the physical and muscular demands of those actions? Of course,
the cause of assembly-line worker’s back injury.
– Any other factors related to things like illness or fatigue?
– How to solve this problem?
 Human Factors

Subjects
Relationship
Diagram

FIGURE 3
The relationship between human factors, shown at the center, and other related disciplines of study.
Those more closely related to psychology are shown at the top, and those related to engineering are
shown toward the bottom.
 Human Factors Relationships
• Closely related to human factors are:
– Ergonomics
– Engineering psychology
– Cognitive engineering
• Historically, ergonomics has focused on the aspect of
human factors related to physical work.
– i.e. lifting, reaching, stress, and fatigue
• Ergonomics describes all aspects of human factors.
• In practice, the domain of human factors and ergonomics
have been sufficiently blended.
Human factors involves the study of factors and development
of tools that facilitate the achievement of this objectives.
 Engineering Psychology

• Engineering psychology is a discipline within psychology,

whereas the study of human factors is a discipline within
engineering.

• Engineering psychology places greater emphasis on

discovering generalizable psychological principles and
theory, while human factors places greater emphasis on
developing usable design principles.
 Cognitive Engineering

• Cognitive engineering closely related to human factors,

but more complex in its definition and could not easily be
placed at a single region.

• It focuses on the complex, cognitive thinking and

knowledge-related aspects of system performance,
whether carried out by human or by machine agents, the
latter dealing closely with elements of artificial
intelligence and cognitive science
RESEARCH METHODS
 Introduction

• The approaches to evidence-gathering described above

represent a sample of a number of research methods that
human factors researches can employ to discover “the
truth” about the behavior of humans interacting with
systems in the real world.

• Research questions involved in human factors:

– What works?
– What is unsafe?
– Which is better?
– Is it easy to use?
 Basic Research Method

• Human factors researchers use standard methods for

developing and testing scientific principles that have been
developed over the years in traditional physical and social
sciences.
• True science experiment conducted in highly controlled
laboratory environment.

• Knowledge of basic research methods is also necessary for

human factors design work. Standard design methods are
used during the first phases of product or system design.
 Basic and Applied Research

• Basic research can be defined as the development of theory,

principles, and findings that generalize over a wide range of
people, tasks, and settings.
– i.e. people practice a particular activity hundreds of times, it becomes
automatic and no longer takes conscious.

• Applied research can be defined loosely as the development

of theory, principles, and findings that relatively specific with
respect to particular populations, tasks, products, systems,
and/or environments.
– i.e. The use of a particular cellular phone while driving.
 Overview of
Research Methods
• The goal of scientific research is to describe, understand,
and predict relationship between variables.
– i.e. relationship between the variable of using a cellular phone while
driving, and driving performance
– Hypothesize the use of a cellular phone will result in poorer driving
performance than not using the phone.

• In human factors, collecting data, whether experimental or

descriptive, is only half of process. The other half is inferring
the meaning or message conveyed by the data, involves
generalizing or predicting from data to the broaden
population.
 Descriptive Method
Observation
• Human factors research consists of recording behavior during
tasks performed under a variety of circumstances.
• In observation, includes identify the variables to be measured.
– i.e. cellular phone study  to develop a series of vehicle status
category in which to assign each phone use vehicle stopped, during
turn, city street, freeway, etc.

• The goal is to get representative samples of behavior, and

easily accomplished by sampling over different days and
conditions.
 Survey and Questionaires
Human factors rely on surveys or questionnaires to measure variables.
The design of questionnaires and surveys is a challenging task.

A major concern with questionnaires is their validity.

A problem is that many people do not fill out questionnaires if they are
voluntary.

Questionnaires and surveys are subjective by definition.

 Incident and
Accident Analysis
• Human factors deal with the overall functioning of a system,
especially with respect to safety.
• Number of methods for evaluating safety:
– Surveys and questionnaires
– Occurrence of incidences, accidents, or both

• Incident is where a noticeable problem occurs during system

operation, but actual accident does not result from it.
• Accident prevention is a major goal of the human factors
profession , especially deals with complex system.
 Data Analysis for
Descriptive Measures
• Relationship between continues variables
– Correlational analysis

• Complex Modeling and Simulation

– Use simulation software Mannequin, COMBIMAN, RULA (Catia),
etc.

• Literature surveys
– Meta-analysis, integrates the statistical findings of a lot of other
experiments to draw a collective and reliable conclusion
ETHICAL ISSUES
 Intro

The majority of human factors research involves

the use of people as participants in research.

Guideline for Code of Federal Regulation of

Health and Human Services.
 Guideline for ethical
treatment of human subject
• Protection of participation from metal or physical harm.
• The right of participants to privacy with respect to their
behavior.

• The assurance that participation in research is completely

voluntary.
• The right of participants to be informed beforehand about
the nature of the experimental procedures.
 Other Resources

• https://bit.ly/37fzpqB
Conclusion
 Conclusion

• Scope of human factors covers ergonomic and psychology

aspect.
• Research methods in human factors and trends.

• Experimental research methods close relationship in

human factors due to several reasons.

• Descriptive methods suit the human factors problems.

 References

• Wickens, C. D., Lee, J. D., Liu, Y., & Gordon-Becker, S. E.

(2014). AnIntroduction to Human Factors Engineering. (2).
Pearson.ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02231-4.
• Mark R. Lehto and Steven J. Landry. (2013). Introduction
to Human Factors and Ergonomics for Engineers, Second
Edition. CRC Press. ISBN 13: 978-1-4665-8416-7.

- https://www.sebokwiki.org/wiki/Human_Systems_Integration
Thank You