Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!sgi!rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com From: rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com (Rob Warnock) Newsgroups: comp.human-factors Subject: Re: Human Factors or also called Ergonomics Message-ID: <110333@sgi.sgi.com> Date: 14 Jun 91 06:53:21 GMT References: <1991Jun12.091705.2823@actrix.gen.nz> <31211@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1991Jun13.000119.4664@cs.UAlberta.CA> <1906@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> Sender: guest@sgi.sgi.com Reply-To: rpw3@sgi.com (Rob Warnock) Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 40 In article tg@chmsr.gatech.edu (T. Govindaraj) writes: +--------------- | There is another, more serious problem. People who work in human factors | have traditionally been working on problems that are not very relevant | in the real world. +--------------- Wait just a minute! Human Factors (roughly as we know it now) got its big start during World War II, dealing with the very real-world problem of pilots crashing airplanes (and themselves) because of cockpit control and instrument layout. The two worst problems were (1) controls which were counter-intuitive [e.g, pull knob up to lower flaps] and (2) differences between one airplane and another, possibly quite similar one [e.g. in one plane you pulled up on a knob to raise the landing gear, in another you pushed down on a very similar knob in close to the same place]. Within a few years the basic style/operation of at least the primary controls and instruments in military cockpits had been standardized. And the crash rate due to those kinds of pilot error was *way* down. [Translation: Fewer pilots and crew were dying.] Isn't that "real world" enough? +--------------- | ... Whereas the problems were once relevant, and there | have been significant contributions (even in empirical subfields such | as anthropometry), most of the current research has become too "academic". +--------------- This may be, I don't know... -Rob ----- Rob Warnock, MS-1L/515 rpw3@sgi.com rpw3@pei.com Silicon Graphics, Inc. (415)335-1673 Protocol Engines, Inc. 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94039-7311