The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

26.8. Tailoring Human Factors Engineering to Your Company's Needs

NOTE

At a minimum, sufficient HFE is needed to ensure product safety and effectiveness in a traceable manner.

No two product development projects are exactly alike and thus no two human factors programs are the same. The more complex the user interface and greater the impact of errors results in a more substantial human factors engineering effort, both in terms of development cost and time (see Figure 26.1). At a minimum, sufficient HFE effort is needed to ensure product safety and effectiveness in a traceable manner.

It is therefore essential that a human factors engineering program include the following elements:

• HFE member of the project team responsible for user-related issues

• Participants from the intended user population

• User-related requirements, task analysis, and functional allocation, most importantly those related to safe use

• Studies, analyses, and tests that assess user performance and identify hazards

• Verification and validation test data for user-related requirements

It is a business decision whether to hire experienced HFE staff or rely on outside consultants. Whatever the approach, HFE expertise must be integrated into the project team to achieve product usability, safety, and cost-effective design.