Rapid prototyping and the human factors engineering process

Rapid prototyping or 'virtual prototyping' of human-machine interfaces offers the possibility of putting the human operator 'in the loop' without the effort and cost associated with conventional man-in-the-loop simulation. Advocates suggest that rapid prototyping is compatible with conventional systems development techniques. It is not clear, however, exactly how rapid prototyping could be used in relation to conventional human factors engineering analyses. Therefore, an investigation of the use of the VAPS virtual prototyping system was carried out in five organizations. The results show that a variety of task analysis approaches can be used to initiate rapid prototyping. Overall, it appears that rapid prototyping facilitates an iterative approach to the development of the human-machine interface, and that is most applicable to the early stages of systems development, rather than to detailed design.