RE: To Human Factors or not to Human Factors

["James Jones" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

'Human Factors' was, I thought, an engineering discipline that studies the
motivations and acts of people as they use objects that are engineered. The
results of these studies are used in engineering new product designs.
'Usability' I think is the term for Human Factors as it is applied to
computers.

Makes sense to me that you take the Human Factors course in your tech comm
program. That they call it 'Human Factors' and not 'Usability' implies to me
that the topics that they will be introducing will be more on the
engineering new products side of the equation. This is very germane to
technical communication.

Jim Jones  http://www.tinyurl.com/4arjc

-----Original Message-----
Your course should have a description or outline available. What you
may learn depends on what the instructor is going to teach, and that
varies from school to school and from instructor to instructor.

Human Factors is roughly the study of human nature and how to analyze
behavior in certain situations. I can't get any more specific without
knowing the angle your course is taking.

But I'd say that such a course, especially if you're low on
psychology/sociology courses, is a good one.

On 12/12/05, A.H. <isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>  January will be my last semester as a tech. comm.
> major and I'm thinking of taking a human factors
> course. My advisor recommended it and I'm interested.
> I think I have an idea of the kinds of things one
> learns in such a course.
>
>  After readiing a few responses to "Hiring
> Questions," I saw a few  references about writers
> designing information. Is this what one learns a human
> factors course, or were they talking about something
> else? 


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