The human factor

What links the frustrations of daily life, like VCR clocks and voicemail systems, to airplane crashes and a staggering ';hidden epidemic' of medical error?Kim Vicente is a professor of human factors engineering at the University of Toronto and a consultant to NASA, Microsoft, Nortel Networks and many other organizations; he might also be described as a ';technological anthropologist.' He spends his time in emergency rooms, airplane cockpits and nuclear power station control rooms--as well as in kitchens, garages and bathrooms--observing how people interact with technology.Kim Vicente sets out the disturbing pattern he's observed: from daily life to life-or-death situations, people are using technology that doesn' t take the human factor into account.

Technologies as diverse as stove tops, hospital work schedules and airline cockpit controls lead to ';human error' because they neglect what people are like physically, psychologically, and in more complex ways.

The results range from inconvenience to tragic loss of life.Our civilization is at a crossroads: we have to change our relationship with technology to bring an end to technology-induced death and destruction, and start to improve the lives of everyone on the planet.

The Human Factor sets out the ways we can regain control of our lives.