Human Factors and Design

This book describes various manifestations of human factors when interacting with potentially dangerous technical systems: airplanes, launch vehicles and spaceships, nuclear power plants, energy-saturated ground vehicles and infrastructure facilities. The idea of the book arose from the desire to find a common ground between industries that are important for safety. Their similarity lies, in addition to the technological advancement of products and solutions, in equally high safety requirements, in particular taking into account the influence of human factor. Thus, it is of relevance to analyze an impact of human factor in the context of safety. The matter is rather complex: on the one hand humans manage technical systems, on the other hand human errors, negligence or evil intentions can turn the system into a threat with disastrous consequences. However, human interaction with any technical system begins earlier – in the design stage. In this stage, designer, being creator of the system, must ensure a safe operation and take into consideration possible risks, including those caused by human factors itself.

The book is interdisciplinary in nature and intended mainly for designers of technical systems, aiming to assist the specialists in understanding the issues of human participation in life cycle of these systems. The examples given are intended to benefit from experiences of not one, but a number of industries.