Human Factors Engineering

Rating:
Summary: 4* if the titled contained the word 'bioengineering'
Review: Human Factors Engineering has been written from a mathematical approach to using engineering skills to solving human factors applications problems. The book is structured around ten chapters, with an emphasis on the use of analytical methods as applied to inanimate devices to ergonomic study. The author states that the book reviews engineering fundamentals prior to introducing human factors applications, and provides worked examples throughout to show how the relevant equations are used in a 'real world human factors application'.

Unfortunately, there are several problems with this book. First, and fundamentally, the target audience for the book is unclear, and at best very limited. The title suggests that the book is a general purpose HFE text, with a wide coverage of the contributions from the various disciplines. Indeed, in the introductory chapter in Part I, the author describes these disciplines. However, the book then goes on to present an almost entirely 'bioengineering' approach. The book describes the 'fundamentals' of human factors engineering in Part II, which apparently include biostatic mechanics, biodynamic mechanics, bioelectricity and bioelectronics, and biothermodynamics and bioenergetics. Part III of the book focuses on 'practice', including ergonomic biodynamics, quantitative workload analysis, neuromuscular control systems and human operator control. Hence, this takes the debate concerning the 'definitions' in HF/Ergonomics into a new realm.

Help is at hand for the confused purchaser in the introduction, which states that book has been written for undergraduate engineering students majoring in a variety of disciplines. Another problem looms. It appears unlikely that most engineering degrees (in the UK at least), which introduce human factors will go into anything like the level of detail presented in the book, and even less likely that much of the content would be used by the human factors practitioner. Also, students of ergonomics/human factors at either undergraduate or postgraduate level (in the UK at least) will almost certainly not employ very much of the content of the book, except PhD students in the 'bioengineering' realm perhaps, for whom this book would probably not be appropriate anyway. Certainly, the book is not aimed at the practitioner. So this mystery remains unsolved.

Finally, the equations presented in the book are not really used in 'real world' human factors applications. It may be more accurate to state that the equations are used in 'real world' biomechanics, or biothermodynamics, etc. But these issues, whilst undeniably important, are not representative of the problems of the real world of human factors.

On a positive note, whilst studying the book, it is clear that what it does, it does well. The book is clearly written and presents worked examples throughout. Hence, the book may be useful for the a limited market. But even if one ignored social aspects of work in the Human Factors Engineering approach, the (almost total) lack of coverage of psychological issues means that the title Human Factors Engineering is inappropriate. I would therefore suggest that this book would benefit from being given a new title as a minimum, with 'bioengineering' somewhere in that title.