human factors

Distraction could be anything that draws a person’s attention away from the task on which they are employed. Some distractions in the workplace are unavoidable, such as loud noises, requests for assistance or advice, and day-to-day safety problems that require immediate solving. Other distractions can be avoided, or delayed until more appropriate times, such as messages from home, management decisions concerning non-immediate work (e.g. shift patterns, leave entitlement, meeting dates, administrative tasks etc), and social conversations.

Psychologists say that distraction is the number one cause of forgetting things: hence the need to avoid becoming distracted and to avoid distracting others. Humans tend to think ahead. Thus, when returning to a task, following a distraction, we have a tendency to think we are further ahead than we actually are.

To reduce errors from distraction it is best to complete a task before responding. If the task cannot be completed without hurrying, then we can prominently mark (or, “lock off”) the incomplete work as a reminder to ourselves and anyone else who may complete the work. When returning to work, after being distracted, it is a good idea to commence at least three steps back, so that we re-trace some steps before picking up the task again. If necessary, having someone else double-check our work using a checklist may be appropriate and useful.

Management have a role to play in reducing the distractions placed on their employees. This may involve good workspace design, management of the environment, and procedures that create “safety zones”, “circles of safety” or “do not disturb areas” around workers engaged in critical tasks.

In aviation many tasks and operations are team affairs; no single person (or organisation) can be responsible for the safe outcomes of all tasks. However, if someone is not contributing to the team effort, this can lead to unsafe outcomes. This means that workers must rely on colleagues and other outside agencies, as well as give others their support. Teamwork consists of many skills that each team member will need to prove their competence.

Some of the key teamwork skills include: leadership, followership, effective communication, trust building, motivation of self and others, and praise giving.

To create an effective team it is necessary that the following issues, as appropriate, are discussed, clarified, agreed, and understood by all team members:

• A clearly defined and maintained aim, or goal(s)
• Each team member’s roles and responsibilities
• Communication messages and methods
• Limitations and boundaries
• Emergency procedures
• Individual expectations and concerns
• What defines a successful outcome
• Debriefing arrangements
• Team dismissal arrangements
• Opportunities for questions and clarification

A team’s effectiveness can also be improved through the selection of team members to reflect a broad range of experience and skill sets, and also through practice and rehearsal.

Fatigue is a natural physiological reaction to prolonged physical and/or mental stress. We can become fatigued following long periods of work and also following periods of hard work. When fatigue becomes a chronic condition it may require medical attention but, workers should never self-medicate! As we become more fatigued our ability to concentrate, remember and make decicisons reduces. Therefore, we are more easily distracted and we lose situational awareness. Fatigue will also affect a person’s mood, often making them more withdrawn, but sometimes more irrational and angry.

It is a human problem that we tend to underestimate our level of fatigue and overestimate our ability to cope with it. Therefore, it is important that workers are aware of the signs and symptoms of fatigue – in themselves and others. Fatigue self-management involves a three-sided programme of regular , healthy diet (including reduced use of alcohol and other drugs), and exercise. Work of a critical and complex nature should not be programmed during the low point on the body’s circadian rhytmn (usually 03:00 – 05:00am); and, when fatigued always get someone else to check your work.

If all the parts are not available to complete a maintenance task, then there may be pressure on a technician to complete the task using old, or inappropriate parts. Regardless of the task, resources also include personnel, time, data, tools, skill, experience and knowledge etc. A lack of any of these resources can interfere with one’s ability to complete a task. It may also be the case that the resources available, including support, are of a low quality or inadequate for the task.

When the proper resources are available, and to hand, there is a greater chance that we will complete a task more effectively, correctly and efficiently. Therefore, forward planning to acquire, store and locate resources is essential. It will also be necessary to properly maintain the resources that are available; this includes the humans in the organisation as well.

Pressure is to be expected when working in a dynamic environment. However, when the pressure to meet a deadline interferes with our ability to complete tasks correctly, then it has become too much. It is the old argument of Quantity versus Quality; and in aviation we should never knowingly reduce the quality of our work. Pressure can be created by lack of resources, especially time; and also from our own inability to cope with a situation. We may come under direct, or indirect, pressure from the Company, from clients and even our colleagues. However, one of the most common sources of pressure is ourselves. We put pressure on ourselves by taking on more work than we can handle, especially other people’s problems, by trying to save face, and by positively promoting super powers that we do not possess. These poor judgements are often the result of making assumptions about what is expected of us.

Learning assertiveness skills will allow a worker to say ‘No’, ‘Stop!’, and communicate concerns with colleagues, customers and the Company. These skills are essential, and when deadlines are critical, then extra resources and help should always be obtained to ensure the task is completed to the required level of quality.

Being both unable to express our concerns and not allowing other to express their concerns creates ineffective communications and damages teamwork. Unassertive team members can be forced to go with a majority decision, even when they believe it is wrong and dangerous to do so.

Assertiveness is a communication and behavioural style that allows us to express feelings, opinions, concerns, beliefs and needs in a positive and productive manner. When we are assertive we also invite and allow others to assert themselves without feeling threatened, undermined or that we’ve lost face. Speaking one’s mind assertively is not to be confused with aggression. It is about communicating directly, but honestly and appropriately; giving respect to the opinions and needs of others, but not compromising our own standards.

Assertiveness techniques can be learnt and they focus on keeping calm, being rational, using specific examples rather than generalisations, and inviting feedback. Most importantly, any criticisms should be directed at actions and their consequences rather than people and their personalities; this allows others to maintain their dignity, and a productive conclusion to be reached.

In the aviation environment, there are two main types of stress: acute and chronic. Acute stress arises from immediate demands, such as emergencies or working under time pressure. Chronic stress results from long-term life pressures, like family issues or financial problems, which can lower our reaction threshold at work and cause overreactions.

Early signs of stress include personality and mood changes, poor judgment, lack of concentration, and memory issues. Long-term stress symptoms include increased susceptibility to infections, higher use of stimulants, absenteeism, illness, and depression.

It's important to recognize early signs of stress and differentiate between acute and chronic stress. Simple breathing and relaxation techniques can help manage daily stress, but effective communication channels to discuss and rationalize issues are crucial. Social interaction with peers is beneficial. Sleep, diet, and exercise are vital in reducing stress and building resilience. Chronic stress requires lifestyle changes, supported by the company. Therefore, companies should implement employee assistance programs that include stress reduction initiatives.

Working in isolation and only considering one’s own responsibilities can lead to tunnel vision; a partial view, and a lack of awareness of the affect our actions can have on others and the wider task. Such lack of awareness may also result from other human factors, such as stress, fatigue, pressure and distraction.

It is important to build experience throughout our careers, especially concerning the roles and responsibilities of those we work with, and our own place in the wider Team. Developing our foresight is essential in pre-empting the affects our actions may have on others. This is an attitude of professionalism and involves constant questioning “what if …?” Asking others to check our work and challenge our decisions is useful in gaining the relevant experience and expanding our awareness. Vigilance is closely related to situational awareness, and workplace procedures, such as scanning, two-way communication and use of checklists will help to maintain vigilance.

Workplace practices develop over time, through experience, and often under the influence of a specific workplace culture. These practices can be both, good and bad, safe and unsafe; they are referred to as “the way we do things round here” and become Norms. Unfortunately such practices follow unwritten rules or behaviours, which deviate from the required rules, procedures and instructions. These Norms can then be enforced through peer pressure and force of habit. It is important to understand that most Norms have not been designed to meet all circumstances, and therefore are not adequately tested against potential threats.

Rules and procedures should have been designed and tested, and therefore ought to be enforced and followed rigorously. Where workers feel pressure to deviate from a procedure, or work around it, then this information should be fed back so that the procedure can be reviewed and amended, if necessary. Developing assertiveness can allow workers to express their concerns about unsafe Norms, despite peer pressure.

field of HCI is concerned with the study, design and testing of interactive computer systems that exist at the point where humans and computers meet

the interface, is typically a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that uses elements including text, icons, buttons and windows to communicate information to the user and allows the user to interact with the interface using devices such as a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, etc. It is vital to consider both the usability and User Experience (UX) of an interface. Usability refers to the extent to which users can achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction using an interface, while UX specifically refers to how a user feels when interacting with an interface.

-goal of HCI: create interactive Computer Mediated experiences that are satisfying, effective, efficient and useful. Those working in the field study the ways in which humans interact with computers in order to develop new and better interaction paradigms, models and theories.

1. The user: who will be using this interface, what are their characteristics, capabilities and limitations?

2. The computer: what computer system will the user be interacting with, what affordances does it provide (e.g. input and output devices) and what constraints does it impose (e.g. small screen size)?

3. The task: what does the user need from the system; what functionality should it provide?

Not paying attention leads to a system that

1. fails to be useful (allows the user to perform a required task)
2. fails to be usable (the user can perform the task in an efficient manner, e.g. without error, delay, etc.)
3. fails to be used (provides an experience that users will want to use, e.g. be satisfying, fun, etc.

• One classic example of the catastrophic consequences that can result from a poor interface is the partial meltdown that occurred at the ree Mile Island nuclear power plant on 28 Mar 1979. A number of user interface problems were found to be among the factors contributing to the cause of this event (Stone et al., 2005). For example, Norman (1983) points out that an important instrument that needed to be monitored was mounted on the rear of a control panel

HCI is a multidisciplinary field involving a range of areas such as human factors, computer science, cognitive psychology, sociology, communication, design, engineering, information science and – as highlighted above cyberpsychology

The roots of the field of HCI can be traced back as far as Vannevar Bush’s seminal 1946 article ‘As we may think’à presents a prescient vision of a future in whi computers augment the intellectual ability of humans

-Joseph Carl Robert Licklider’s ‘Man computer symbiosis’ (Licklider, 1960)à stressed the importance of a close, interactive relationship between humans and computer systems. His view was that rather than computers replacing human intelligence, computers could be used to amplify human intellect and free us from mundane tasks

-Ivan Sutherland (1963) in his Sketchpad system. Sketchpad allowed a user to use a light pen to draw directly on an oscilloscope display. The graphical objects displayed on the oscilloscope display could also be directly manipulated using the light pen input device

-Douglas Engelbart: The Mother of All Demos(1968)à In this lecture Engelbart gave a live demonstration of a computer system called the oN-Line System (NLS) that contained many of the fundamental elements of modern computer systems and interfaces including bitmapped screens, windows, the mouse, collaborative editors and video conferencing

- Alan Kay proposed (Kay, 1972) a portable personal computing device, named Dynabook, to act as an educational aid to children. This device built on the ideas of Engelbart and early cardboard prototypes of the Dynabook were developed in a tablet form factor that was unachievable in practice using the technologies of the time

- recent technological advances such as the Web, touchscreens, gestural interfaces, speech recognition and synthesis, virtual reality displays, wearables, augmented reality and gaze tracking have posed new questions and opened new avenues in HCI design and research.

- One current trend is a move away from GUIs towards Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) (Montuschi et al., 2014). the goal of these NUIs is to replace the artificial interfaces we are used to – e.g. using a mouse to manipulate graphical windows on a screen, with natural interfaces that are essentially invisible. For example, spoken language dialogue systems like Apple’s Siri and gestural interfaces like Microsoft’s Kinect are steps towards this goal of a NUI.

- Initially, HCI focused on the usability of computer applications, defined by ISO9241–11 (1998) as the ‘extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use’ à later an additional field was included: Interaction Design (IxD), defined by Preece et al. (2015, p. 8) as ‘designing interactive products to support the way people communicate and interact in their everyday and working lives’. this new field is wider in scope than traditional HCI, encompassing the design of any interactive experience

there is no single, universally applicable model for HCI. However, most HCI projects involve a number of fundamental activities (Preece et al., 2015):

1. gathering requirements; 2. designing a solution(s); 3. constructing a prototype(s); 4. evaluating.

- One key characteristic of this process is that it is iterative. For example, following evaluation a flaw may be identified in the interface. This may require returning to the design stage and continuing from there, or if necessary returning back to the requirements gathering stage and continuing through all four stages again. Another important feature of the process is that each stage provides an input to the next.

1. Gathering requirements

1. Task: one must clearly establish what it is that the interface should do; e.g. When designing an interface to allow the user to perform tasks one must also understand the characteristics of these tasks. Who performs this task? When do they perform it? How frequently is the task performed? What tasks occur before/after this task? Is this task made up of subtasks? If so, how are these subtasks organised?
2. User: Mayhew (1999) identifies four types of characteristics that should be considered: psychological characteristics (e.g. attitude and motivation), knowledge and experience (e.g. computer proficiency and task experience), job and task characteristics (e.g. frequency of use and task structure), and physical characteristics (e.g. physical impairments)
3. Computer: Having built a picture of the human, it is necessary to consider the computing platform they will be interacting with – i.e. the computer hardware and soware that the interface being developed must run on

2+3. Designing and prototyping: Once the characteristics of the user, computer and tasks have been established, the iterative process of interface design and prototyping can begin

1. Design guidelines and heuristicsà  set of usability principles, known as heuristics, that can be used as ‘rules of thumb’ (Nielsen, 1995) for interface design:

1.Visibility of system status. 2. Match between system and the real world. 3. User control and freedom. 4. Consistency and standards. 5. Error prevention. 6. Recognition rather than recall. 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use. 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design. 9. Help users recognise, diagnose and recover from errors. 10. Help and documentation

2. Prototyping: The design and prototyping tasks go hand-in-hand à Initially, only a conceptual model of the interface will be designed. This conceptual model incorporates high-level design decisions such as the overall structure of the interface and the basic interaction paradigm to be used. Once this has been evaluated and validated, as described in the next section, the design can proceed to consider more low-level details such as icons, fonts, menus and graphics

4.   Evaluation

Having constructed an interface it is time to test its usability and the UX it provides. e goals to be tested will vary from project to project but will typically be defined in advance. Goals can be categorised as usability goals (e.g. can users perform tasks quickly, without making errors, etc?) and UX goals (e.g. do users find the interface fun and enjoyable to use?)

three categories of evaluation techniques:

1. Controlled settings involving users: Usability testing: tests are conducted in a laboratory-style seing. Users are typically given test tasks to perform and data is collected using a range of methods – e.g. questionnaires, observations and interviews.
2. Uncontrolled settings involving users: diary studies, field studies, online field studies
3. Any settings not involving users: e.g. Heuristic evaluations (the interface’s adherence to a set of usability principles), Models (primarily used to test alternative interfaces for the same system – e.g. the optimal arrangement of user interface elements on screen, by predicting user behaviour),

Psychology with a key role in HCIà Having an understanding of a person’s ability to multi-task, maintain attention, recognise and recall information, learn, reason, perceive their environment, etc. helps inform the design of an interface that will take advantage of a person’s abilities while compensating for their limitations

HCI and cyberpsychology have much in common, both involving the study of humans and technology, but with cyberpsychology placing a greater emphasis on the human.

HCI is not explicitly concerned with the psychological effects of an interface on a human. ere is a role for cyberpsychologists to provide input into the HCI design process, to ensure interfaces result in the desired psychological effect and/or avoid an undesirable effect. Similarly, cyberpsychologists will have a role to play in performing interface evaluations and experiments to build theories of the psychological phenomena surrounding HCIs.

-virtual organization: organization that is a flexible network of independent groups, which can be linked together by information technology (Pang, 2001). The VO gives rise to the virtual team.

virtual team members: are drawn from diverse geographical backgrounds and may have different skill-sets to contribute to a project. This in turn gives rise to people working for an organisation in one location and living in another and bringing diversity to the workplace. Workers can develop a boundaryless mindset

-processes demanded a heavy human input in order that the products were made, distributed and sold

-stores occupied an enormous amount of real estate

-industries were the life blood of towns and cities, offering secure and permanent employment to their populations

-Traditional organisations had clear boundaries, with layers of management and a ‘ain of command’ mentality à often lacked flexibility

-Smaller, flatter organisations can reduce the management layers and aieve greater organisational efficiency

-People buy products directly from store websites and sell on through websites such as e-Bay

-Heavy manufacturing takes place mainly in Eastern countries rather than in the West

-advances in technologyà A call centre is an example of a service or a place where technical enquiries can be handled in one location but serve an international audience

-Today’s workers develop flexible job portfolios and bring the skills from one organisation and sector to another

-Technology enables the continual connectedness with staff, who can now work from any location and are not tied to base

-Hiring online is also advantageous because it offers cost savings, faster ‘time-to-hire’ and access to a wide range of talent

-companies are interconnected and must respond to environmental changes quickly

-modern organisation must be flatter, has fewer management layers, it out-sources services as required, and is more effective as it responds to market trends immediately

-A different set of supervisory skills is called for managing multiple teams who are physically separated

-Managers need to have an open, positive attitude that is solution focused. They need to have a results-orientated management style and possess good communication skills. Finally, they need to be able to delegate effectively, take risks, learn quily from mistakes and then ensure that work has been completed

-flexible network of independent entities linked together by information technology in order to share skills, knowledge and expertise

- Skills and people can be geographically dispersed and the virtual organisation can access a wider range of skills and only use, and indeed pay, for these skills when they are neededà considerable savings, in time, money and expertise

-personal lives of staff can be accommodated and this will add positively to their work–life balance

-Working online also keeps a digital record of what has been done and the work yet to be completed.

- well-designed websites, appropriate collaborative tools, a stable Internet connection and tech-savvy individuals are needed for an successful organization

-The challenges are for management to create more flexible organisations with horizontal networks rather than managerial hierarchies

-the move from a clear-cut management structure to one of independent entities contributing to a project is challenging and often ambiguousà psychological boundaries rather than geographical boundaries

Salas et al. (1992) defined a traditional team as ‘a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact, dynamically, interdependently, and adaptively towards a common and valued goal/objective/ mission, who have each been assigned specific roles or functions to perform and who have a limited life-span of membership

Teams are more fluid and dynamic, VTs are also operating in a more complex environment; teams are being formed, re-formed and disbanded quickly; the advantage is that multiple skills and talent can be drawn into teams regardless of location. VTs can be drawn from different time zones and different countries or continents

differences to face-to-face-teams: the environment in which teams operate is more dynamic than here-to-fore, they operate using technology and work from a distance and VTs may have less managerial layers and may be more powerful

potential problems due to: lack of physical interaction and the lack of non-verbal cues or body language. Setting up a virtual team needs careful construction. Some form of social activity at the initial stages is necessary for people to get to know each other.

The first team meeting is vital, as this will establish how the team will work together. Team roles and responsibilities need to be clarified and each team member needs to know how to use the required technology. If team members are drawn from a broad geographical spread, some work needs to be undertaken so that cultural and language issues are clearly understood by members