The Scope of Human Factors Engineering

The diagram below shows the scope of HFE. Click on each ‘information’ symbol to learn more.

The scope or elements of HFE can be summarised as follows:

• Psychology – How people think may affect how they interact with a system and how it performs. For example, training and practice significantly reduce the vigilance decrement and may improve sensitivity for many sustained attention tasks.
• Physiology – Human physiological characteristics should be considered when designing systems—for example, variation in size and strength between a 5th percentile female and a 95th percentile male.
• Environment – Where people do things impacts how people perform a job or task. For example, glare can make it difficult to read from screens leading to fatigue or human error.
• Tools and Equipment – What people use should be suitable for both the intended activity and the intended user. Factors like ease of use, user posture need to be considered. 
• Activities and Tasks – The type of job or task affects how a person performs it. For example, a very high or low workload can increase the risk of human error.

The science basis of HFE draws from a number of different disciplines, including:

• Psychology: HFE draws heavily from the field of psychology, particularly in areas such as perception, cognition, memory, attention, and decision-making.
• Sociology: Sociology is the study of human social behaviour and its origins, causes, and consequences, it helps to understand the social context of technology and how it can affect human behaviour.
• Anthropometry: Anthropometry is the study of human physical characteristics, such as body size, shape, and proportions, that are relevant to the design of equipment and systems.
• Biomechanics: Biomechanics is the study of how the human body moves and how it is affected by different physical loads and environments, it can be used to design equipment and systems that are appropriate for the human body and that do not pose a risk to the user’s health.
• Physiology: Physiology is the study of the body’s functions and processes, and it can be used to understand how different equipment and systems can affect the body’s physiological responses, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and so on.
• Industrial Design: Industrial design is the study of how to design equipment and systems that are aesthetically pleasing, easy to use and safe, it can be used to design equipment and systems that are appropriate for the intended users.

It is important to note that HFE is an interdisciplinary field that draws on knowledge from multiple fields and as an engineer, it is important to stay current with the latest research and developments in these fields to be able to design and evaluate products and systems that are safe, efficient and easy to use.
This image is provided by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.