Russ dedicates this book to Michael G. Egleston for his inspiration in handling challenges, great and small, medical and otherwise. I am proud to call you family! Joe dedicates this book to his daughter, Taylor. The two most powerful words in learning are "how" and "why." Never stop wondering how the world works! Emily dedicates this book to all the wonderful teachers and mentors she has had, especially Russ, without whom I would not be where I am today, working in the field of human factors engineering. Bryant dedicates this book to his parents, Larry and Wendy Foster. Thank you for teaching me the value of hard work and that life is meant to be enjoyed.vii
PrefaceLike most human factors engineers, I learned about the field completely by accident. As an undergraduate interested in neuroscience, I was pursuing majors in psychology and biology when I took a job as a research assistant in the psychobiology lab. Just prior to that, one of the professors in the department passed away, and his wife donated his entire library to our school. As the assistant, I was tasked with shelving all his books, and one book, Human Engineering Guide to Equipment Design, edited by Harold P. Van Cott and Robert G. Kinkade, caught my eye. As I paged through, I discovered all kinds of facts, figures, and rules about human vision, hearing, memory, attention, and decision making. These weren't just musings or guesses about how people behaved; they were real honest to goodness data compiled from hundreds of scientific studies. It then showed how to apply these scientific facts to design. It combined my interests in psychology and physiology perfectly and, more than that, proved that some lucky people actually did this for a living. I decided immediately to search for graduate programs in human factors.Back then, there were only a few PhD programs in human factors, and they were housed in either psychology (cognitive psychology, engineering psychology, industrial psychology, experimental psychology) or industrial engineering. Interestingly, they taught largely the same courses: Research methods, statistics, sensation and perception, cognition, biomechanics, and of course, human factors, which usually combined the other topics.All four of us have stories somewhat similar to this. We were studying something related, learned about human factors engineering (HFE) by chance, and recognized we had a real affinity for it. In recent years, device manufacturers, hospitals, and regulatory entities have recognized the perils of medical device use error and the need for human factors engineering. Because devices failed to accommodate wellknown human capabilities and limitations, patients, providers, and caregivers were injured or died. This has led more people to discover the field and recognize their affinity for it, as well.Rather than human factors engineering degrees, however, practitioners often have backgrounds in mechanical engineering, quality engineering, medicine, technical communications, industrial design, user experience design, or servic...
