human-factors engineering

[hyoo-muhn-fak-terz en-juh-neer-ing, yoo‐]

noun

1. an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, systems, and physical working conditions with the capacities and requirements of the worker; ergonomics. HFE

Word History and Origins

Origin of human-factors engineering¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

By virtue of its human-factors engineering and flight-control automation, the BlackFly can be mastered by almost anyone with a few days’ training, roughly comparable to the requirements for a driver’s license.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

What contemporary reports did not point out—though scholarship in human-factors engineering emphasized and a later essay in Vanity Fair brought to public attention—was that the pilots’ mistakes, some of them novice errors, may have been at least partly due to the automation.

Read more on Slate