Careers in Human Factors

1. Careers in Human Factors Wally Boot Florida State University 2013

2. What is Human Factors? • Also known as: • Ergonomics • Engineering Psychology • Definition: • Human Factors is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. HF researchers contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of people. • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

3. What is Human Factors? • Less formally: • Human Factors researchers help to ensure the design of a system (software, mobile device, vehicle, roadway environment, power plant) matches the perceptual and cognitive abilities of those using the system • Usability/Efficiency • Safety

4. Good Human Factors avoids confusion

5. Understanding Human Performance in Applied Settings

6. Is Human Factors the field for you? • Do you want to use your research skills and knowledge of psychology to solve everyday problems? • Do you want to have an impact on the well-being and safety of many people? • Are you up to the challenge of studying psychology in the wild?

7. Where do Human Factors researchers work? • Academia • Professor in Psychology/Engineering • Requires a Ph.D. (e.g., cognitive psychology, experimental psychology) • Activities: • Developing your own line of research • Obtaining funding for research • Disseminating results • Teaching graduate/undergraduate students • Major Advantage: • You are doing the research YOU want to do, the way YOU want to do it! • Example Institutions: • FSU, University of Illinois, Georgia Tech http://www.hfes.org/Web/EducationalResources/careerresourcesmain.html

8. Where do Human Factors researchers work? • Industry • Typically requires M.S. or Ph.D. • Activities: • User-centered design • Research, design, design validation • Major Advantage: • HF scientists are in high demand – compensation tends to be good • But, your freedom to do the research you want to do, the way you want to do it may be limited • Example Institutions: • Apple, Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Oracle, Nokia, Google http://www.hfes.org/Web/EducationalResources/careerresourcesmain.html

9. Where do Human Factors researchers work? • Government/Military/Aerospace • M.S. or Ph.D. typical • Tend to require U.S. citizenship and security clearance • Activities: • Task analysis, design validation, overseeing contracts with private companies • Major Advantage: • Salaries tend to be lower than private sector, but more job security • Again, freedom to pursue your own research ideas limited • Example Institutions: • U.S. Army Research Lab, NASA, FAA, ONR, Lockheed Martin http://www.hfes.org/Web/EducationalResources/careerresourcesmain.html

10. HF Domains • Transportation (e.g., driving, aviation) • Health(e.g., medical device design, telehealth, training) • HCI (human-computer interaction) • Consumer product /software design • Gerontechnology Highlights Human Factors as an interdisciplinary field

11. Michael Ambinder Experimental Psychologist at Valve I'm an experimental psychologist at Valve, and essentially my role is to apply knowledge and methodologies from psychology to game design. In practice, I spend a ton of time on data analysis, hardware research, play-testing methodologies, and wherever else knowledge of human behavior could be useful (how to foster cooperation/competition among players, manipulating visual attention onscreen, designing experiments for our in-game economies, building models of skill acquisition, and so forth).

12. Ben Hsieh I'm in the Experience Design department at Adobe Systems. Broadly, I create quantitative and qualitative models of users that help us learn how people use our software. More specifically, this means adapting psychology knowledge and experiment design for project needs. What is frustrating our users? How can we make this software a better experience? User Research is absolutely necessary for making great software experiences. At Adobe, we know that we can't just ask users for features, or how they'd make software better. (It's a good thing to do, but it's not everything). Instead, we need to have a deep understanding of users to really design the best tools we can. Design Researcher at Adobe

13. Jason Wong As a Human Factors Engineer for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI, I am responsible for evaluating the human performance aspects of new systems and technologies that are being developed for future submarine control rooms. I also design new and innovative training methodologies to more efficiently train our sailors and submariners. Human Factors Engineer

14. Bill Horrey I work at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, which is a unit within the Liberty Mutual Insurance company. We are internally funded and our mission is to carry out research on workplace and highway safety and work disability. The research is non-proprietary and we seek to publish all our findings in the open, peer-reviewed scientific literature. Additionally, the research is used by other branches of the company to inform or to develop products or guidelines for our insurance customers. Research Scientist

15. Human Factors Research at FSU • Human Factors and Aging • Neil Charness • Wally Boot • With age, perceptual and cognitive abilities decline • Person-environment mismatch • Can we design computers, medical devices, roadway environments to better match the abilities of seniors? • Improve access • Improve safety

16. Center for Research on Aging and Technology Enhancement

17. Cyclist Safety Study

18. Cyclist Safety Study

19. Where do I start? • Get some experience! • DIS • CREATE lab, FDOT Lab • Graduate School • Most (but not all) HF positions require a graduate degree • http://www.hfes.org/web/Students/career.html

20. Summary • Human Factors researchers use knowledge of human performance and behavior to improve human-system interactions • Basic  Applied • Human Factors researchers work in many different domains • Human Factors researchers work in a diversity of settings • Human Factors research is interdisciplinary