Designing for People
In just a few years, the roles of medical and surgical practitioners have undergone a major transformation, owing to developments in a new generation of advanced technologies such as surgical robotics, virtual reality simulators and e-learning. Although unfortunately the end users, practitioners and specialists, are often ignored during the design and development process, sometimes with [...]
The years following the launch in 1949, of the Ergonomics Research Society of England at The Admiralty, was described by the late Professor Brian Shackel as “the decade of military ergonomics”. Certainly the Second World War was a catalyst for ergonomic investigations into a wide range of human-centred issues, from pilot hand-eye coordination and the [...]
Since the year 2000, seven of the world’s navies have experienced a total of 19 major incidents involving submarines, some, sadly, resulting in fatalities. Given the remote areas of the oceans within which these vessels operate, early and effective safety training of recruits is of paramount importance. SubSafe is an HFI DTC study evaluating a [...]
The introduction of information technologies into the battlefield generates a range of unique human factors issues. For example, integrating radically new communications systems with legacy devices may well lead to problems of interoperability and the misinterpretation of strategic and tactical data. On today’s battlefield, the importance of accurate information representation and timely knowledge sharing across [...]
The UK’s defence medical personnel deliver a unique service to theatres of operation across the globe, serving both military and civilian populations during wartime and peace-keeping deployments. Training the teams of outgoing medics in both the physical and cognitive skills necessary to make timely actions and decisions to save the lives of casualties entering field [...]
It’s a sad fact that never a week goes by, it seems, without reference to military and civilian casualties caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). One of the ‘hallmarks’ of present-day insurgent strategy, IEDs can range from the re-use of conventional explosive ordnance to quite sophisticated remotely or automatically-triggered packages, disguised as, or hidden in [...]
