Have you ever tried to open a package and found it extremely difficult, requiring you to reach for a tool? Have you ever tried to pull on a door handle only to find out it’s a push door? If so, it’s easy to think it’s your fault, but in reality, poor human factors design is likely at play.
When designing a product, it’s crucial to keep the end user top of mind. In this post, we’ll show you the importance of human factors in product design, teach you valuable principles, and show you examples of products we designed at StudioRed with human factors in mind.
What Are Human Factors in Design?
Human factors design is about designing products with particular attention to human capabilities and limitations to improve usability. It also considers other systems and the environment in which the product will exist. The end goal is to create products and systems that are efficient, effective, safe, and simple to use.
Researching your target audience is also crucial in this process. It helps narrow your focus on specific design aspects to create an optimal user experience for the product’s users.
The Importance of Considering Human Factors in Product Design
While it’s important to put energy and thought into a product’s features, users should be able to seamlessly use those features. Considering users’ physical and cognitive capabilities and limitations allows designers to create functional products that are intuitive and enjoyable to use.
When human factors design is part of your process, products become more accessible to a wide range of users, including those with disabilities. By creating a product that suits a diverse group of people, you will have much more success meeting users’ needs.
Additionally, well-designed products can reduce user error, increase productivity, and enhance overall user satisfaction. Making human factors design a priority allows your products to meet and exceed user expectations.
Human Factors vs. Ergonomics vs. UX
You may sometimes see human factors, user experience (UX), and ergonomics used interchangeably, but each has a distinct yet complementary role in creating user-friendly products. Here are the differences between the terms:
- Human factors: This broad discipline considers human capabilities, limitations, and behavior when interacting with products and systems. It looks at cognitive abilities, environmental factors, and physical characteristics.
- Ergonomics: A subset of human factors, ergonomics is the study of the physical interaction between humans and products. Ergonomics looks at factors like posture, reach, and physical exertion to create a comfortable and efficient design. Think of an ergonomic chair that supports your back or a keyboard that minimizes wrist strain.
- UX: UX design principles encompass the entire user journey when interacting with a product. It involves understanding user needs, emotions, and perceptions to create a positive and enjoyable experience throughout the product’s use. For example, a TV remote with good UX has an intuitive layout and may have extra features like backlit buttons and voice control.
Human factors and ergonomics lay the groundwork for creating usable and efficient products, whereas UX adds a layer of emotional appeal and user satisfaction to the experience. By combining these disciplines, designers can create products that enhance users’ lives.
Human Factors Design Principles
You can overcome product design challenges by turning to the five principles of human factors design. These principles should guide your design team to look at your product from different angles and decrease the likelihood of missing something crucial for usability.
We also provide some examples of products we designed at StudioRed using these principles to help you when working on your next project.
1. Ergonomics: The principle of ergonomics is about keeping people of all shapes and sizes in mind. Ergonomics includes a person’s posture, reach, and force when using a product. This can also include accessibility features. Implementing ergonomics involves focusing on the extremes of human variability to ensure the design accommodates the broadest range of users and scenarios, inherently addressing the most typical use cases.
The image below is from a study for a biotech instrument focusing on comfort based on a user’s height. By focusing on the extreme use case scenarios of 95th-percentile men and 5th-percentile women, the study aims to gauge how the product will feel with the lowest lab bench height. The primary consideration was the reach and clearance needs of the tallest user.
2. Cognitive load: This human factors principle involves minimizing mental effort by creating intuitive and easy-to-use products. Providing clear instructions or using familiar symbols and patterns minimizes cognitive load.
3. Consistency: Consistency in your product’s look and function allows for a lighter cognitive load due to predictability. For example, levers may be placed at a consistent height from the floor to accommodate both seated and standing users.
4. Efficiency: This principle aims for users to complete a task in the shortest time possible. An example would be using an ergonomic study to consider already established user behavior, aiming to design products or systems that align with the user’s already existing habits, patterns, and expectations. This approach leverages familiar behaviors to minimize the learning curve and the cognitive and physical effort.
In the following image, you can see our team working on a self-checkout system for retail stores. We analyzed the existing workflow from both the clerk’s and customer’s perspectives to ensure efficiency for anyone using the product. The top row shows the process of the clerk reaching for a product from behind, while the bottom row shows how a customer would interact with the front of the device.
5. Familiarity: Products should have some familiarity to reduce the chance of confusion and additional cognitive load when used for the first time. Products with similar features to others in an ecosystem or comparable products enhance predictability and reduce cognitive effort.
Human Factors Considerations When Designing a Product
As you set out to create a plan for human factors in product design, it’s helpful to consider the following:
- Simplify onboarding: Bringing users in for testing should be seamless, and it starts with breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable steps while providing the user with clear guidance at each stage. Avoid overwhelming the user with information when providing instructions by prioritizing the most critical features and functionality.
- Give users a sense of control: Empowering users with a sense of control is paramount. Clear feedback, intuitive controls, and the ability to customize settings can help you foster a positive user experience.
- Provide error handling: Consider who will use the product and what challenges they may encounter when interacting with it. Adjust the design and provide audible cues or visual alerts if something is wrong to minimize the impact of potential user errors.
When we designed the warehouse scanner in the image below, we acknowledged that many warehouse workers wear gloves. This makes it difficult to press the buttons effectively, so we evaluated the button placement, size, spacing, and force requirements to accommodate gloved hands.
- Implement clear feedback mechanisms: Similar to error handling, you can include physical, auditory, and visual feedback mechanisms. For example, a button or switch might click into place when turning a machine on, letting the user know it worked.
- Test for real-world usability: When testing the product, ensure it’s tested in scenarios the user is likely to encounter. A product for outside use will be designed differently than one used in an office.
Approaches To Identify Human Factors in Design
Designers use various techniques to identify opportunities for human factors in design. We’ve listed them below, along with some examples:
- User testing: During the testing phase, have a diverse group of people test multiple designs. This allows you to see how they interact with a product and get a variety of perspectives.
When redesigning the steering controls for a skid steer, we did a study on both the handles and the physical controls to make sure the user felt safe and stable when steering while also feeling comfortable.
- Surveys: Conducting surveys is a great way to gather insights and feedback. They can help you identify user needs and expectations, potential user limitations, and what features to prioritize. Surveys after testing allow you to gauge user satisfaction and the pain points they experienced.
- Observation: Gathering quantitative data, like completion times and error rates, can help you focus on specific aspects of the product when you make revisions.
- Prototyping: Prototypes take your vision of human factors and bring them to life in a test version. You can create inexpensive mockups of products to test your theories about ergonomics, efficiency, cognitive load, and other factors. Something as simple as a paper mockup can go a long way.
The following prototypes are for a warehouse scanner we designed. We wanted to evaluate the ergonomic tilt of the device — we were able to test for different hand sizes by using iterative foam mockups and 3D-printed prototypes.
Create User-Centric Designs With StudioRed
Human factors are critical if you hope to create a user-friendly product. Prioritizing usability leads to increased adoption, improved productivity, a positive brand image, and more. Here at StudioRed, we have an experienced team that applies the principles of human factors design to every product we create.
Our team has expertise in industrial design, engineering, and UX and UI. We help bring your product to life, from conception and prototyping to the final product. We work closely with each client to ensure their vision becomes reality while also satisfying users.
Get in touch today so we can work together to elevate your product design.
