To Develop Viable Human Factors Engineering Methods for Improved Industrial Use

Human factors engineering methodology is important for design of complex systems, such as control rooms and distributed control systems. Available methodologies are however seldom adapted to industrial needs, which limits the use of the existing human factors engineering research base. In this paper we argue that human factors engineering methods have to be developed and adapted to the engineer working under industrial project constraints. Otherwise human factors engineering is unlikely to achieve a broad industrial impact. The paper suggests how the industrial viability of methods can be improved by applying a use centered approach to method development

Work, Locales and Distributed Social Worlds

this paper, we propose Anselm Strauss' (1993) Theory of Action as a candidate from which to evolve a framework to ground an understanding of work for the following reasons: (1) it already exists as a coherent, related set of abstractions - a big picture - which makes the social more accessible, and provides a background against which other concepts from CSCW can be mapped or be seen to complement; and (2) it provides analytical leverage for systems developers who do not have a social science background nor the services of a social science team member. In the second section, we propose that insights from Strauss' work on the importance of structural conditions for social world (cooperative ensemble) interactions can help us to view support systems in a new role as setting/ locale for cooperative work interaction, thus providing a bridge between the social and the technical. We then provide a brief overview of WORLDS, a locales-based environment we are building concurrent with our theoretical exploration. Action, Social Worlds and CSC