DESIGNING *for humans

Call for Human Factors Speakers and Topics - IDSA 2007

IDSA's Human Factors professional interest section is soliciting input for next year's joint IDSA/ICISD conference in San Francisco.

We're asking for your suggestions on human factors-related speakers and topics that you'd like to hear about at the conference.

Please link to this brief form for submitting your suggestions: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=145049035E10737

Thanks for your help, and feel free to forward this link to anyone who might be interested.

Design Research Quarterly - First Issue

The Design Research Society has published its first quarterly newsletter.  Of particular interest is the cover article by Liz Sanders, titled "Design Research 2006".  The article discussed the current research space in industry and academics, with a focus on the differences between the user-centered and the participatory research/design models.

Download design_research_quarterly_1.1 .pdf

Human Factors Product Design Award

Two medical devices are the winners of the 2006 User-Centered Product Design Award. Submitted entries are judged in terms of application of Human Factors process and the effectiveness of the resulting design.  There was actually a tie this year between two medical devices:

http://www.hfes.org/web/DetailNews.aspx?Id=116

The winning devices are the Medtronic Straightshot M4^TM Microdebrider and Hospira's Symbiq™ Infusion System. Contributing to the winning designs were Metaphase Design Group (Straightshot M4 Microdebrider) and HumanCentric Technologies, Inc. (Symbiq Infusion System).

As a committee judge I can tell you that the overall quality of entries has increased over the years, a sign that HF and user-centered design has a growing presence in industry.

-Rob Tannen