Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist Design objects, facilities, and environments to optimize human well-being and overall system performance, applying theory, principles, and data regarding the relationship between humans and respective technology. Investigate and analyze characteristics of human behavior and performance as it relates to the use of technology.
Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist is Also Know as
In different settings, Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist is titled as
- Certified Professional Ergonomist
- Cognitive Engineer
- Consulting Ergonomist
- Ergonomic Consultant
- Ergonomics Consultant
- Ergonomics Technical Advisor
- Ergonomist
- Human Factors Advisor
- Human Factors Engineer
- Occupational Ergonomist
Education and Training of Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
- Bachelor in Systems Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Systems Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Systems Engineering
- Bachelor in Industrial Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Industrial Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Industrial Engineering
- Bachelor in Manufacturing Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Manufacturing Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Manufacturing Engineering
- Bachelor in Engineering/Industrial Management
- Associate Degree Courses in Engineering/Industrial Management
- Masters Degree Courses in Engineering/Industrial Management
- Bachelor in Packaging Science
- Associate Degree Courses in Packaging Science
- Masters Degree Courses in Packaging Science
Training Required for Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist in different industries are
- Industrial Engineers
- Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
- Validation Engineers
- Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
- Data Scientists
- Mechatronics Engineers
- Computer and Information Research Scientists
- Health Informatics Specialists
- Robotics Engineers
- Manufacturing Engineers
- Software Developers
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Clinical Data Managers
- Occupational Health and Safety Technicians
- Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Management Analysts
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Computer Hardware Engineers
What Do Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist do?
- Write, review, or comment on documents, such as proposals, test plans, or procedures.
- Train users in task techniques or ergonomic principles.
- Review health, safety, accident, or worker compensation records to evaluate safety program effectiveness or to identify jobs with high incidence of injury.
- Provide human factors technical expertise on topics, such as advanced user-interface technology development or the role of human users in automated or autonomous sub-systems in advanced vehicle systems.
- Investigate theoretical or conceptual issues, such as the human design considerations of lunar landers or habitats.
- Estimate time or resource requirements for ergonomic or human factors research or development projects.
- Conduct interviews or surveys of users or customers to collect information on topics, such as requirements, needs, fatigue, ergonomics, or interfaces.
- Recommend workplace changes to improve health and safety, using knowledge of potentially harmful factors, such as heavy loads or repetitive motions.
- Provide technical support to clients through activities, such as rearranging workplace fixtures to reduce physical hazards or discomfort or modifying task sequences to reduce cycle time.
- Prepare reports or presentations summarizing results or conclusions of human factors engineering or ergonomics activities, such as testing, investigation, or validation.
- Perform statistical analyses, such as social network pattern analysis, network modeling, discrete event simulation, agent-based modeling, statistical natural language processing, computational sociology, mathematical optimization, or systems dynamics.
- Perform functional, task, or anthropometric analysis, using tools, such as checklists, surveys, videotaping, or force measurement.
- Operate testing equipment, such as heat stress meters, octave band analyzers, motion analysis equipment, inclinometers, light meters, thermoanemometers, sling psychrometers, or colorimetric detection tubes.
- Integrate human factors requirements into operational hardware.
- Establish system operating or training requirements to ensure optimized human-machine interfaces.
- Inspect work sites to identify physical hazards.
- Develop or implement human performance research, investigation, or analysis protocols.
- Develop or implement research methodologies or statistical analysis plans to test and evaluate developmental prototypes used in new products or processes, such as cockpit designs, user workstations, or computerized human models.
- Design cognitive aids, such as procedural storyboards or decision support systems.
- Conduct research to evaluate potential solutions related to changes in equipment design, procedures, manpower, personnel, or training.
- Assess the user-interface or usability characteristics of products.
- Collect data through direct observation of work activities or witnessing the conduct of tests.
- Apply modeling or quantitative analysis to forecast events, such as human decisions or behaviors, the structure or processes of organizations, or the attitudes or actions of human groups.
- Analyze complex systems to determine potential for further development, production, interoperability, compatibility, or usefulness in a particular area, such as aviation.
- Advocate for end users in collaboration with other professionals, including engineers, designers, managers, or customers.
- Design or evaluate human work systems, using human factors engineering and ergonomic principles to optimize usability, cost, quality, safety, or performance.
Qualities of Good Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Tools Used by Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
- Algometers
- Anthropometers
- Automated blood pressure measurement equipment
- Body fat measurement calipers
- Colorimeters
- Computer laser printers
- Desktop computers
- Digital audio recorders
- Digital force gauges
- Digital video cameras
- Electrocardiography EKG monitors
- Electroencephalography EEG equipment
- Electromagnetic motion analysis systems
- Electromyograph processing systems
- Electronic distance measuring devices
- Exercise treadmills
- Flight simulation equipment
- Goniometers or arthrometers
- Hand dynamometers
- Hand sensor gloves
- Haptic devices
- Heart rate monitors
- Heat stress meters
- Inclinometers
- Interactive whiteboards
- Isokinetic dynamometers
- Laptop computers
- Laser Doppler flowmeters
- Light meters
- Lumbar motion monitors
- Manual blood pressure measurement equipment
- Microphones
- Motion capture systems
- Noise meters
- Octave band analyzers
- Oxygen analyzers
- Personal computers
- Push/pull dynamometers
- Sling psychrometers
- Tablet computers
- Torsiometers
- Touch screen monitors
- Velometers
- Video goggles
- Video projectors
Technology Skills required for Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomist
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Dreamweaver
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- AEMC DataView
- AJAX
- Altia Design
- Apple Safari
- Atlassian JIRA
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Bit Debris Solutions Usability Activity Log
- C++
- Cascading style sheets CSS
- Computer aided design CAD software
- Dartfish ProSuite
- Dassault Systemes CATIA
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
- Data Translation quickDAQ
- Debugging software
- Dynamic hypertext markup language DHTML
- Extensible markup language XML
- Graphical user interface GUI design software
- Hypertext markup language HTML
- IBM SPSS Statistics
- JavaScript
- JavaScript Object Notation JSON
- jQuery
- Linux
- Mangold INTERACT
- Mangold LogSquare
- Mangold Soundalyzer
- MathWorks Simulink
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Visio
- Microsoft Visual Basic
- Microsoft Word
- Mozilla Firefox
- National Instruments LabVIEW
- Noldus Information Technology FaceReader
- Noldus Information Technology The Observer XT
- Noldus Information Technology uLog Pro
- Oracle Java
- Ovo Studios Ovo Logger
- Python
- R
- Regression testing software
- SAS
- Seeing Machines faceLAB
- Simulation software
- Statistical software
- TechSmith Camtasia
- TechSmith Morae
- The MathWorks MATLAB
- Thought Technology BioGraph Infiniti
- Triangle Research Collaborative Observational Coding System OCS Tools
- Usability testing software
- User interface design software
- Word processing software