“I perceive the benefits of HCD as:
- Enables the design team to zero in on what is truly important to the machine operator. We have all seen machines that seemingly were designed in a vacuum;. The machine may be functional; however, if an operator does not WANT a machine to work, it will not. If the operator finds the human to machine interface attractive, intuitive and adaptive to HIS personal needs, that operator will embrace the machine and even recommend to others (3rd party testimonial). If the operator environment is clunky, offers too much data or is uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time, ultimately it will not be successful.
- Restrains the designers from over-engineering the operator environment. Limits the amount of data that can be presented to the operator at any one moment in time.
- Causes the designers to think more aesthetically thereby reducing operator fatigue and enhancing operator buy-in.”
T. Glidden - Vice President Mobile Markets Engineering
“The most important thing about HCD is that it is accessible to everyone in nearly every workforce. Its’ main concept revolves around improving existing practices by transforming the culture in which people work. I’ve worked with HCD in a correctional facility where morale was low and therefore employees were less productive. After one HCD workshop, the employees were far more upbeat, engaged and excited about the changes they had all proposed within the workshop environment. After that experience I’ve been able to see the profoundly positive impact is has on attitude and efficiency within the workplace.”
Brianne Mueller - Marketing Coordinator.
“My first experience with the HCD exercise ‘think aloud testing’ was a very positive one, resulting in tons of saved time and energy. Within the first two minutes of our exercise, it was clear there were huge disconnects between the design and the implementation of our interface. Luckily these disconnects were easily removed by utilizing HCD principles, resulting in a tremendously improved interface and a template we can now use for future projects. My only regret is that we had not implemented these techniques earlier in the design process, as it would have minimized or eliminated our costly ‘post-engineering’ phase.“
Bill Reuter - Sales & Business Development Manager.
“When one person is involved with a project, they get so streamlined that it’s hard to see the whole machine being developed. HCD helped us step back and reassess our project in its entirety, allowing us to pin point issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. After our session, I was confident that we were providing our customers with a better product.“
Teri Shaver - Project Manager.
“In my 15 years of designing control systems, the predominant design process has been to define the functionality of the machine, generate the control program, and design the operator interface. As a design engineer, functionality was always my primary focus, while aesthetics and usability were relegated to tools to achieve the desired functionality.
During the ‘think aloud testing’ process of one these interfaces, I was amazed to see how much the operators struggled. As I was responsible for generating the design, it was easy for me to understand how to use the interface. My exposure to these HCD tools has changed my perspective on the methodology being used to design these systems. By shifting the focus in perspective from the engineer to that of the end user, our design was far easier to operate. Because of HCD, I now believe that the most successful designs will be approached from the top-down, instead of using the traditional bottom-up approach.”
Jason Biwer - Business Development Engineer.