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From: smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com (Willie Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Human Factors or also called Ergonomics
Message-ID: <1309@sousa.ltn.dec.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 14:57:23 GMT
Sender: newsa@sousa.ltn.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 26


In article <1991Jun13.000119.4664@cs.UAlberta.CA>, 
	cdshaw@cs.UAlberta.CA (Chris Shaw) writes...
>In article rc7@prism.gatech.EDU (Richard Catrambone) writes:
>>...research by psychologists in this area has had at best a
>>relatively modest impact on interface designs and the design process. 

>Ergonomicists also have a bad habit of getting into the design loop way
>too late. Perhaps this is because early involvement is viewed as being
>methodologically impure, and because ergonomics is viewed as a product
>testing discipline. Both of these views work against design effectiveness
>simply because it's too late in the game.

OK, how do I go about talking to an Ergonomicist before I've designed the
user interface for my teleoperated vehicle, and find out how to do it right
(or closer to right than my WAG) the first time?  Say I had no budget (hey,
this is a hobby, and hardware costs are eating my lunch), could I talk a
grad student at a local university into making the user interface his
thesis, or do I have to goto grad school myself and make it my own thesis? 
What schools in the Boston area (or New England in general) have good
programs in Ergonomics? 

Willie Smith
smith@sndpit.enet.dec.com
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