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From: jpope@axion.bt.co.uk (john pope)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: rules of thumb
Message-ID: <1991Jun26.092540@axion.bt.co.uk>
Date: 26 Jun 91 08:25:40 GMT
Sender: news@axion.bt.co.uk
Reply-To: jpope@axion.bt.co.uk (john pope)
Organization: British Telecom Research Labs
Lines: 33


A lot of the discussion in this group seems to be bitty:
ie I don't like this, I don't like that.

I wonder if anyone has any general `rules of thumb' for
considering human factors when designing products.
I know this sounds a bit like asking someone to unify
the laws of physics in a sentence; but I thought it was
worth asking.

I'd also be interested in people's views on systems analysis
methods. To me, many seem to ignore human factors aspects:
I'm thinking particularly of when they are used to communicate
ideas to users, eg I've heard that ERDs (Entity Relationship Diagrams)
and DFDs (Data Flow Diagrams) are easy to review with users. My
experience contradicts this. Some methods, eg Soft Systems (a la
Checkland and Wilson - Lancaster University) incorporate cartoon-like
representations which are quite good but are very open to interpretation

John




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