Human Factors Research Series (1) — Ideation and Refinement

(This blog was written upon my graduation. )

— — -

PREFACE As my graduation is coming up (finally!), I thought it would be a good idea to start a new blog series to talk a little bit about what I have learned from my grad school experience. The main intent of the series is to share with you some of the human factors research I have done in the past two years, and also give you a tip or two on conducting your own human factors research (if you ever want to start your own).

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I would love to start a discussion.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

For my master’s degree, I worked on a two-year project with Raytheon Canada. Although the research domain is in aviation, I have always found that the skills I have developed are transferrable. I would like to share with you some of the most interesting things I have done and learned so far that is applicable regardless which field you work in. Hopefully my experience will save you some time in conducting your own human factors research.

1. Ideation and Refinement

One of the hardest part of my research, well any research, is to get the right idea of what to focus on, especially if your project starts with a rather broad topic, like “understanding how fatigue affects decision making.” Once you start your exploration, you will notice that there is just way too much information and different approaches you could take.

Take me as an example, I started my project claiming that it is about the radar surveillance systems in both aviation and maritime domain, because they are facing very similar problems. But after a while, I realized that it is simply impossible to study both domains at the same time — there are differences in operational procedures, object dynamics, information distribution process, personnel management, etc… I need refinement, refinement, refinement.

It took me a good 6 months to get to the point where I knew exactly what this project should be about:

• I decided on the study domain (aviation);
• I built a model to help me visualize the radar surveillance system ( radar surveillance information being distributed to operators);
• I specified use cases and persona (non-cooperative information being shared by controllers and pilots);
• I identified 5 human factors challenges in the use cases which eventually narrowed down to 2 for further investigation.

The process is very much like the figure demonstrated below. I started from the blue dot and ended with the green dot.

If you start off like me, having a quite broad topic, take your time to do background research and literature review. You will be surprised of how much work people have done in your interested area. Those valuable results would save you a huge chunk of time and narrow your scope. Also, remember that your time is limited. At one point you will have to prioritize and make a strategic decision of your research plan.

What kind of process have you gone through? Share with us!

In the next blog, I will talk about Lab-based Experimental Design and Execution.