The present and future of human factors

In view of the problems facing human factors specialists, how do they feel about the present status of their profession and its future prospects? A small number of highly qualified practitioners were asked their opinions about various questions which have been discussed in two previous articles in this series. In a 1979 survey they agreed that designers rarely solicit human engineering assistance and resist human engineering inputs; that the behavioural research reported in the literature is of relatively little value in system development work; that government does not monitor human engineering in system development very effectively. In a survey performed for this article, specialists were generally optimistic about the future of their discipline but concerned about government funding and job support under the Reagan administration; felt that engineering and public acceptance of human factors is increasing slowly; were ambivalent about any significant improvement in methodology; and considered that the scope of human factors work would expand in the future. The need for human factors should increase in the future and the future looks reasonably promising if specialists learn to deal with a rapidly changing technological environment.