Human factors design (or people-centered design), specifically, focuses on

improving areas within a product or design where interaction happens.

Examples include when you use a touchscreen smartphone and when you
perform tasks on your desktop computer.

The goal is to reduce the number of mistakes that users make and produce
more comfortable interactions with a product. Human factors design is about
understanding human capabilities and limitations and then applying this
knowledge to product design. It’s also a combination of many disciplines,
including psychology, sociology, engineering, and industrial design.

Human factors vs. UX

So, when we talk about human factors design, is it the same as UX design?
Not necessarily.

Human factors design has roots in ergonomics, and it’s primarily focused on
how people interact with technology. It’s about making a system usable,
especially when it comes to human-computer interaction (HCI).

User experience (UX), on the other hand, encompasses everything that users
go through when they interact with a product. The goal of UX design is to
make a system both useful and pleasurable to interact with.

When people evaluate a product, they usually judge it on both usability and
likeability. The human factors that make a product usable are a part of the
larger user experience. Thus, UX designers should have a good
understanding of human factors design so they can create a great product.

Key human factor design principles

As we mentioned above, human factors are all about improving the

interactions between machines and humans. To make this happen, you’ll
need to think about your user’s capabilities and limitations, and then apply
those to your product or web design.

Most of the human factors principles listed below come from the ISO
9241 standards for ergonomics of human-computer interaction. The principles
mentioned in this section have one goal: helping the user engage with a
product and get into a state of ‘flow’ when using it.
Physical ergonomics

Physical ergonomics refers to the human body’s responses to physical work

demands—for example, using the physical muscles of your hand to hold your
smartphone or touch a screen. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to
create comfortable interaction with a product. To assess whether the product
is good for the user, human factors specialists take into account:

 Specific operations that users complete with the product (for example,
entering text into a web form)
 Physical characteristics of the product (for example, a mobile phone’s
size, shape, and weight)
 Context of use, or how users interact with information on this device

This information helps human factor specialists design a product or device so

that users can complete tasks efficiently and effectively. For example, when
we apply human factors design in mobile app design, we size touch controls
to minimize the risk of false actions.

Human factors design takes into account how a user interacts with the
product, including using properly sized buttons versus buttons that are too
small. Image credit Apple.

User testing will give you significant insight into correct ergonomics. In your
user testing, for example, you can ask users to interact with the product and
measure the error rate. You might find out that your users have trouble hitting
specific buttons that are too small, so then you’d know to make them larger.

Consistency

This principle states that a system should look and work the same throughout.
Consistency in design plays a key role in creating comfortable interactions. If
a product uses consistent design, a user can transfer a learned skill to other
parts of the product.

It’s also important to maintain both internal and external consistency:

 Internal consistency – Apply the same conventions across all

elements of the user interface. For example, when you design
 a graphical user interface (GUI), use the same visual appearance of UI
elements throughout.
 External consistency – Use the same design across all platforms for
the product, such as desktop, mobile, and so on.

Familiarity

The principle of familiarity states the importance of using familiar concepts

and metaphors in the design of a human-computer interface. The design
industry loves innovation, and it’s very tempting for designers to create
something new and unexpected. But at the same time, users love familiarity.
As they spend time using products other than ours (Jakob’s Law of Internet
User Experience), they become familiar with standard design conventions and
come to expect them.

Designers who reinvent the wheel and introduce unusual concepts increase
the learning curve for their users. When the usage isn’t familiar, users have to
spend extra time learning how to interact with your product. To combat this,
strive for intuitiveness by using patterns that people are already familiar with.

Sense of control

Human-computer design is all about the control of information by the user.

The user is the one who should control the interaction with a system, not the
other way around.

Here are a few things to remember when designing a system:

 Provide adequate feedback – Use visual and auditory signals to help

users understand the current status of a system.
 Control for system operations – Users should have control over
system operations, such as interrupting or terminating actions.
 Personalization – Offer content based on what you know about the
user to create the impression that the system adapts to the user’s
needs.

Interactive elements, such as buttons, should always provide visual feedback

on interaction. Image credit Aaron Iker.
Efficiency

Users should be able to complete their tasks in the shortest possible time. As
a designer, it’s your job to reduce the user’s cognitive load—-that is, it
shouldn’t require a ton of brain power to interact with the product.

Some tips to keep in mind:

 Break down complex tasks into simple steps. By doing that, you can
reduce the complexity and simplify decision-making.
 Reduce the number of operations required to complete the
task. Remove all extra actions and make navigation paths as short as
possible. Make sure your user can dedicate all their time (and
brainpower) to the task at hand, not the interface of a product.
 Guide the user. Guide your user to learn how to use the system by
giving them all information upfront. Anticipate places where users might
need extra help.
 Group related information together. For example, when your product
uses a graphical user interface, you can place UI elements in a way that
draws attention to the most important information. Use the Gestalt
Principles to organize information on screens.
 Offer shortcuts. For seasoned users, it’s important to offer shortcuts
that can improve their productivity. An example would be keyboard
shortcuts that help users complete certain operations without using a
mouse.

Error management

To err is human. But that doesn’t mean your users like it! The way a system
handles errors has a tremendous impact on your users. This includes error
prevention, error correction, and helping your user get back on track when an
error does occur.

Here are a few things to remember when designing error handling:

 Prevent errors from occurring whenever possible. Create user

journeys and analyze them to identify places in which users might face
troubles.
  Protect users from making fatal errors. Create defensive layers that
prevent users from getting fatal error states. For example, design
system dialogs that ask users to confirm their action (such as deleting
files or their entire account).

Psychopathology is the study of mental illness and the behaviors and

experiences that may indicate mental illness or impairment. The term comes
from the Greek words psych (meaning “mind” or “soul”), path (referring to
“feeling” or “suffering”), and ology (“the study of”).

Psychopathology includes the study of:

symptoms, behaviors, causes, development, treatments, categorization, and
strategie

The psychopathology of everyday

things (Norman) — DAY 64
The first chapter of the classic Don Norman’s book: The
Design of Everyday Things.

Roberto Pesce
·

Follow
6 min read

Nov 23, 2016

32
The psychopathology of everyday things is how Don Norman
starts to travel through a lot design concepts, usability
fundamentals and interesting information that he observed
during his everyday activities. I’m not interested in rewriting
his book, and, of course, I strongly recommend any designer
to read this, that is considered one of the bibles of usability
and design. What I will do is cover the aspects that, for me,
are very important, adding a little bit of my point of view.

So, the first two fundamentals that he brings to us are the

main characteristics of a good design:

 Discoverability: the product must be self explanatory,

the user should be able to discover what actions are
possible and how to perform them;

 Understanding: users must be able to understand how

the product is supposed to be used and what all the
features mean.

According to the author, the most relevant components of a

product must be visible and communicate the correct
message. For everyday products, of course, this is something
really intrinsic, but for complex products sometimes an extra
layer of information is necessary. A good example are
instruction manual, or even in-person trainings, that can
make the hole experience more complete and relevant. For
Norman, this is an aspect that designers usually miss, while
focusing on beauty instead of utility.

Everything in the modern life is designed. When you read

everything, you can really think about anything, and you will
turn out understanding that it was designed somehow. That’s
why we have all these different kinds of designers within the
design profession. Norman focus in three, specially:

 Industrial designers: emphasize the form and the

material that a product takes;

 Interaction designers: focus on designing the

understandability of a product and its usability;

 Experience designers: concerned about the whole

emotional impact that a product takes in users’ lives.

Building a product is not easy. Machines don’t think, so the

teams that develop it must understand every touch point
with the final user, as well as every need this user has. The
designer will not be, eventually, there to tell the user what to
do, and the machines will follow every step forever, no
matter how annoying it is. This situation can get users
frustrated, specially if they don’t get it. An interesting
characteristic of users, brought by the author, is that they
usually blame themselves when these frustrations happens.
They think they are not good enough, even though this is a
clear problem created by the design team.

Why psychology?

Why this psycho title, though? Because design has a lot

about psychology. People are diverse, you will probably
never find two persons that are exactly the same. Human
behavior is diverse, and people react in different ways. That’s
why design and UX are so closely related to psychology. The
design team have to think about how different people will
behavior while interacting with some product, and even
making sure that every possible error was taken into
consideration. A good design is not the one that works pretty
well in the expected scenario, but the one that can make the
users feel comfortable when unexpected errors occur.

Human Centered Design (HCD)

The HCD is the bias of design, the theory, that places the
user in the center of any development process. Users’ needs,
capabilities and behaviors come first, before any
development. The development comes, actually, to
accommodate all this. By placing the users in the center, the
team make sure that all the necessary communication will be
designed to improve the ease of use, making sure the users
will understand what to do. The process described by the
author to ensure a good HCD is:
 Observe: The team observe to get the specifications of
what will be designed;

 Define: The team actually specify what will be designed;

 Rapid tests and ideas: It’s a brainstorming with lot’s of

concepts and alternatives that can solve the users’ needs;

 Iterate: The best ideas are iterated and improved;

 Deliver: The best possible solution is delivered, solving

user’s needs.

HCD is a philosophy. It should be developed as a belief

within the team’s guidelines and principles. It’s about
understand the user and put him in the center. It’s about a
lot of procedures that ensure that the user is being properly
raised to the center, and is something that can not be built
easily, taking time, training and focus.

Fundamental principles of interaction

Interaction is about how the machine react and respond to

users, and a great interaction is the one which creates great
experiences. This is what really determine how good the
interaction is. Great designers create great and smooth
interactions, ensuring great experiences. While interacting
with a product, the first thing a user wants is to figure out
how it works. In the next topics I will cover what Norman
says about each fundamentals of a good interaction:

 Discoverability: As mentioned initially, the

discoverability is the capacity that the user has to
discover what are the actions possible to perform in a
product;

 Affordances: This is what indicate how a product

supposed to be used. It’s not a property, how we will see
in the next item: signifier, it’s more about a relationship.

 Signifiers: When an affordance is not perceived, we need

to adopt signifiers. While the first is related
to what actions are possible, the signifiers are related
to where these actions take place. Signifiers are literally
the clues, and can be intentional, or not.

 Constraints: This is related to design. Any design has

constraints and this is what makes any design a challenge.

 Mappings: This is related about how the information is

organized and set up. A very important fact that the
author mention here is that mappings can have different
perception depending of the culture. Something that is
pretty obvious in the US, for example, can be dubious in
Japan.
 Feedback: Every system has to give feedback to the user,
and this feedback should e immediate, informative, and
enough: not too little, not too much. A good feedback is
the one that is planned, and that makes the user to
understand and really use it to plan his next actions.

 Conceptual model: This is related about how people

build ideas and concepts inside their minds. If a product
follow the conceptual model it makes things easier to use,
providing understanding and helping the user to predict
his actions. One important understanding here is that
different users can have different conceptual models
depending on their understanding about a subject. An
expert user will definitely have a different conceptual
model about a product than an amateur one. Everything
comes from a system image that is the big
picture (understanding) that an user have about some
subject.

Following the fundamentals, the author explains that for all

these reasons, the technology usually introduces us to a
paradox, where it can helps us on solving a lot of problems —
making things easier — as well as bringing us a lot of hard
times — making things more complicated. The author calls it
the paradox of technology where the features come to solve
our problems at the same time that they bring us more
complexity.
The challenge for design is to join all this in something
practical and useful. By multidisciplinary teams and
cooperative efforts, development teams and designers have
to solve all these problems to bring things that will solve user
needs, while being competitive, being aesthetically beautiful,
and so on.

So this is a summary about the first chapter of Don Norman’s

book. As you can see, t’s still the first chapter but he brings a
lot of concepts and a rich vocabulary. As I wrote in the begin,
I strongly encourage any of you to read the entire book, as
this is mandatory for those who want to work with user
experience and even the design subject itself. Design is
about people and problem-solving, so how to dissociate the
HCD concept to the design concept?