University of Utah Human Factors Certificate

Human Factors Certificate

Welcome to the Human Factors certificate web page. Here you can learn more about the exciting field of Human Factors, and how you can earn a certificate to signify your expertise in that field (and hopefully some expertise to go along with it).

What is Human Factors?

Human Factors is a field which originally grew out of a fairly narrow concern for optimizing human interaction with physical devices. It has since broadened in scope significantly, and presently involves a wide variety of research into human psychological, social, physical, and biological characteristics. Human Factors uses the information obtained from that research, and applies it to the design, operation, or use of products and systems for optimizing human performance, health, safety, and/or habitability.

The goal of Human Factors is to improve human interactions with equipment, software, and other people in ways that enhance performance, increase safety, and improve user satisfaction. Human factors concerns range from such trivial things as making it possible for the average user to set the clock on their VCR, to areas of such vital importance as providing equipment to assist anesthesiologists in monitoring their patients. If the importance of the latter task is not immediately obvious, consider that 98,000 people die in surgery every year in the U.S. alone, and that most of these fatalities are due to avoidable human error. Therefore, any method of designing medical equipment which can reduce human error by even a small percentage can save hundreds or even thousands of lives, and that is precisely the area where Human Factors excels.

This webpage was developed as a class project in the Human Factors class of spring 2006. Thanks to Sam, Ed, Chris, and Ken!