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The Human Factor: An interview with Professor Kim Vicente

Originally appeared in the Cannon

In 1999, TIME Magazine chose him as one of 25 Canadians under the age of 40 who is a “Leader for the 21st Century who will shape Canada’s future” and also mentioning that he “.. puts human simplicity into technology.” His latest book, ‘The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way People Live with Technology’ won the National Business Book Award in 2004. A visionary who places human needs and values first and blasts technology that is suited for the physical world but too complicated for the common man, he is none other than Prof. Kim Vicente of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department, who is the professor interviewed for this week. Excerpts from the interview are detailed below.

How did your Engineering Journey start?

I’ve had always been fascinated by practical things. Since the age of twelve, I liked doing technical stuff. Computers particularly interested me. I applied to University of Toronto for the Industrial Engineering program. In the course of my program, we had a course which talked about human factors and the relationship between that and engineering. This seemed like an interesting concept and I decided to study that further.

Your latest book, ‘The Human Factor’ won awards and talks about a relatively new but sensational topic of Human Factors engineering. Could you tell the readers more about it?

The basis of designing products or systems is for the benefit of the end consumer. Be it a toothbrush or a nuclear reactor plant, it affects the people who are working with it as well the people who are going to use it after that. The purpose of engineering has always been to make life easier for mankind by making new devices that are useful for us. However sometimes the focus shifts more towards the technological aspect and loses the social aspect. Human factors engineering talks about this social and technological interaction between the user and the product. It talks about how designs and structures of various systems affect our day to day lives.

Your book, currently used as a course material for APS111 and APS112, cites various examples about industries which ignore the human factor like aviation, nuclear plants, medical etc. Out of those explained, which one do you think must definitely take the human factor into account?

The hospital industry really needs to take pro active steps in improving the human factor. On an average 11500 to 23500 people die per year in Canada due to faulty medical care. Right from font size on drug labels to long working hours of the doctors and nurses play a major role. Often it is seen that if human considerations are taken into account, marketing or the physical aspects of a product can take a back seat.

What is more important?

The both are very much interrelated and it is hard to say which is more important. Companies and services should learn how to combine human factor awareness with the marketing strategies. It’s simply about striking the right balance. Any product can be made user friendly but at the cost of some other factors like price, practicality etc.

What is the role of media in promoting human factor awareness?

In the past, media hadn’t promoted human factor relationship much. A lot of people knew what was going on but always thought it was a personal thing. Most people realized what human factors was all about once the media started covering it. People realize that they aren’t the only ones who are finding the designs of certain products and services difficult to understand. In that sense, the media has been really responsive nowadays to spread this awareness among the people. However, it’s not good enough. A lot more awareness has to be spread.

In today’s fast moving world, a lot of new technologies are coming out and we accept them the way they are.Can you mention one design which is extremely well suited for the end users and one design which is very poorly designed yet widely accepted?

It’s hard to pick one design which is good or bad as there are numerous. One design that comes to mind which can be better is probably the cell phones which are in the market today. The purpose of the cell phone is to enable wireless communication. Today, you don’t find a phone in the market which is just a phone. They are getting complicated by the day. If I could design a phone, I would also design a very basic phone along with the new phones. The basic phone would have high and simple buttons which are very easy to understand, so that people of my parent’s age can use the phone conveniently. One design which is perfectly suited for the end users is the Apple iPod. Not only is it innovative technology, its very easy to use and looks very nice. It’s a good example of the right balance between marketing and human factor consideration.

A lot of your research is done at the Cognitive Engineering Laboratory (CEL). Could you tell us more about the research and the aims the lab wishes to achieve?

At the CEL the research done is focused on designing computers for power plants. We conduct experiments with people who use these computers trying to understand their interaction with the machines. We are also trying to improve the health care processes which affect the human factor interaction. The overall objective of the CEL labs is to conduct research to improve products and services for the people. Alongside with the CEL, courses like ESP in first year and Industrial Economics course for 2nd year Industrial students and other elective courses help the students to gain a better understanding of what goes on in the CEL and increases their human factor awareness.

It has been a long journey for you and definitely very interesting. What has been the most influential lesson you have learnt which you think has been a major factor in enabling your success today? And do you have a message for our readers?

The most important lesson I feel I have learnt that one has to be patient to see things change. Changes don’t happen overnight. Another thing I realized is that you don’t realize you are making a difference until you get some feedback. Human Factors is such an interesting topic that even after such a long association with it there still seems so much more to do. As technology is taking giant leaps, the problems are getting more complicated as they are not balancing out. Attention is needed as safety becomes a critical factor. Also, when you are working on something you like, work doesn’t seem like work anymore.