Human Factors Methods for Design: Making Systems Human-Centred

by Christopher P Nemeth
CRC Press, Cambridge UK, 2004
396 pp. Trade, $140.00
ISBN: 0-4152-9798-2.

Reviewed by John Knight
User-Lab
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design

John.knight@uce.ac.uk

This book comes from the same stable as Patrick Jordan's Pleasurable Products. Other publications in the series include Jordan’s Introduction to Usability and Human Factors in Product Design with William Green. With this pedigree, this new volume is unlikely to disappoint, and it doesn't. It looks and feels trustworthy and complete. It is overwhelmingly practical as well as erudite when it needs to be.

The book has three parts. The first describes the practice of Human Factors. The second offers a compendium of methods. The last part looks at professional issues and applications. It is clearly aimed at practitioners and should act as single point of reference. Indeed the introduction suggests that its writing came from the lack of such work. It is aimed at the design disciplines and will have relevance to everyone from architects to software engineers. For the more 'designerly' it may be a bit dry and there are few illustrations to break up the text. However, designers would be well advised to read it.

The book begins by looking at the barriers to the take up of technology and the problems with design products and user-interfaces. Human Factors is proposed as a remedy to the intractable problems of interface design and improving the user experience. The focus is on traditional ergonomic concerns of comfort, performance and failure and reliability rather than experiential use qualities. As such, it is a good counterbalance to the current vogue of emotional design. Applications centre on systems and especially those pertaining to activity and work. The firm ergonomics background is also evident in the focus on evaluation and standards and the process the author proposes that is built on solid requirements.

We are taken through the history of human factors design, and this is contextualised by a process cycle that dovetails with business needs and the product lifecycle. Given the ergonomics focus, it is understandable that the first section tackles human abilities and limits, memory and physiology and the influence of the external environment including temperature. Motivation and problem solving are also considered and are firmly rooted in a cognitive perspective.

Chapter three looks at problem solving. Unusually given the practitioner focus it deals with Montaigne and sensual experience and tackles philosophical issues in an accessible and businesslike manner. Chapter Four looks at products and innovation. Providing an overview of process that integrates ideation and the product lifecycle within a typical user-centred design framework.

Chapter Five takes an overview of the discipline and maps out its application in industry. The first sections pave the way for the main content. Focusing on methods, it will probably be of most interest to practitioners.

In just under 200 pages, Nemeth covers, 36 methods. These are organised under six sections. The first concerns analytical methods. Next design guidance is dealt with. Evaluation methods are then described, followed by a useful chapter on surveys, interviews and questionnaires. The final chapters concern usability assessment and controlled studies.

Each method is described in terms of what it does. The preparation required is then outlined as well as the necessary materials, equipment and environment. In addition, easy to follow procedures and methods for analysing results are provided. Short examples are given to bring the methods to life. The methods are also usefully cross-referenced. Many will be familiar to practitioners but not all, and those relating to requirements and problem definition are particularly welcome.

The final section of the book considers the business side of human factors. Beginning with the cost benefits, useful organisational issues are examined. Then, Nemeth looks at communications and the book concludes with case studies from a wide range of projects from web sites to a bus workstation.

This is a useful practitioner's book, clearly grounded in industry practice with an eye on current research and philosophical groundwork. At nearly 400 pages it is comprehensive without any padding. The core of the book is its understandable descriptions of methods. These provide valuable professional guidance and makes Human Factors Methods for Design: Making Systems Human-Centred an invaluable reference work.