Principles of Forensic Human Factors/Ergonomics

Human factors engineering is a ground-breaking area too often ignored or misunderstood by lawyers. Often a designer’s error encourages mistakes or misuse. Unfortunately, when trying these personal injury cases, legal professionals often pre-determine the "human factors" based on their own ability to use a product or operate in a particular environment. Since lawyers are human, they feel that they intuitively know about all human factors. The result? Many lawyers fail when trying personal injury cases, even though a thorough knowledge of human factors engineering could have meant a successful verdict.

Principles of Forensic Human Factors/Ergonomics (revised edition of Human Factors Engineering for Forensic and Safety Specialists) is an excellent resource because it takes you step-by-step over the areas of concern. You’ll get an in-depth look at the fields of architecture, transportation, consumer products, and furniture, areas in which questions of safety are most frequent. In addition, you’ll discover how to separate the situation in which the product design is at fault from those situations where the injured is at fault due to carelessness or misconduct. Topics include: • concept of design-induced human error or product misuse and personal safety • user/product interface and environmental influences • user limiting characteristics in product design • architectural systems • roadway, ground and air vehicular systems • consumer products and tools • home and work furnishings and equipment • graphics and product labeling • human factors/ergonomics tests