Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

* To provide a comprehensive overview of the rationale, benefits and principles of human factors.
* To cover the major themes of human factors including physical factors, cognitive factors and organisational
factors.
* To present multiple design implications, considerations and methodologies that can be followed when designing
for a wide variety of people and applications.
* To present and discuss different scenarios where human factors considerations play a crucial role such as in
system safety, in human-automation cooperation and in delivering high levels of performance and system
resilience in domains such as transport, manufacturing and healthcare.
* To inform and provide a contemporary knowledge base on current trends and proven methods that support
designing for humans in any engineering design context.

Outline Of Syllabus

* Human factors: origins, rationale and benefits
* Systems perspectives on human performance
* Physical, cognitive and organisational aspects of human factors
* Human-computer interaction relevant to engineering and engineered systems
* Design for all, accessibility and EDI
* Obtaining, Capturing, measuring and use of anthropometric data to inform design
* Cognitive methodology for workload, situation awareness and human-computer interaction / User Experience
* Human-automation integration, for machine intelligence and for robotics
* Human role in safety, including human perspectives on accidents and incidents
* Complex work systems - describing complexity for human integration into engineered systems
* Applied Ergonomics: Industrial and consumer ergonomics / Transport ergonomics and user-base design issues
* Data gathering and project management

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this Module students will be able to:
* Include the “user/operator/customer” as the fundamental starting point for the design of devices and systems
by coupling the product’s features to user needs, abilities and limitations
* Critically identify and evaluate the main implications of cognitive, mental, physical and environmental
factors and constraints when designing for humans
* To apply a user-centred design process and identify and effectively deploy the most suitable techniques when
designing for: reliability, usability, safety, user satisfaction to best meet the initial product/system
specifications.

Intended Skill Outcomes

By the end of this Module students will be able to:
* Describe the reasons for taking a human factors / user-centered approach
* Determine and demonstrate how physical, mental, cognitive and behavioural limits can be incorporated as design
parameters
• Understand key issues for human factors such as automation, system safety and complexity
• To identify potential sources of risks and reliability issues and generate alternatives that mitigate these by
applying relevant strategies
• To incorporate human systems thinking into case study analysis and development projects
• To be able to identify and apply appropriate methods relevant implement human factors within a project

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures are intended to promote an appreciation of the various implications of ‘designing for humans’ and developing set of skills that can be applied to topical issues and case studies in design and ergonomics.

Group-projects, where students identify the most critical knowledge and information relevant to a pre-assigned case and apply it to develop specific solutions within the engineering design and ergonomics space.

Practicals, where students are given specific contents to review ‘online’ which are then solved and reinforced in a group-based session with a member of staff acting as facilitator.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

*The examination is used to assess knowledge, independent learning and understanding of material and the ability to integrate this material, to communicate it clearly, and to demonstrate critical thinking in relation to a short case example in engineering, design or operations.

*The Group-based practical Lab report allows for discussion of options and group justification of the selected case studies, methodologies and results. The assessment will involve producing one singe Team report following a template discussed in class.
The team will use a peer-evaluation system to distribute the final marks according to their performance.

For the purposes of professional body accreditation, in order to obtain a passing mark overall for this module (50%) at the first attempt the minimum acceptable mark for each of the assessment items specified below shall be 35%, with the maximum possible module overall mark where this is not the case being restricted to 40%: (1) 50% Exam (2) 50% Assignments (Combined)

General Notes

N/A