The Human Factor: Revolutionizing the Way We Live with Technology Paperback - 2004

Your brain may give birth to any technology, but other brains will decide whether the technology thrives. The number of possible technologies is infinite, and only a few pass this test of affinity with human nature. -- Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny

Some of the greatest discoveries . . . consist mainly in the clearing away of psychological roadblocks which obstruct the approach to reality; which is why, post factum, they appear so obvious. -- Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers

Prediction is difficult, especially of the future. -- Yogi Berra

Preface

I realized that my life would never be the same again late one night in the fall of 1983 when I was a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. I lived with my parents, and I had taken over their big teak dining-room table to do my homework. My textbooks, papers and class notes were spread out over its entire surface. It was 2:00a.m. and I had been working on a project nonstop since dinner -- something not uncommon for an undergraduate engineering student, but this time I noticed an important difference. I had been working hard, but the time had passed quickly, and although it was late, I wasn’t tired and wanted to continue working. I realized I was staying up not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I was fascinated by what I was doing; I was actually enjoying it! I didn’t feel that strongly about any other course -- differential equations, for instance. There was something different about this course, human factors engineering -- the unique area of engineering that tailors the design of technology to people, rather than expecting people to adapt to technology.1 I remember making a mental note to myself -- this human factors stuff is pretty cool.

Years later, I went on to do a master’s and a doctorate, and became a professor of human factors engineering. In retrospect, I can see why the field exerted such a strong attraction: when I was growing up, I did well in science, computer and mathematics courses; I was curious -- probably annoyingly so -- always trying to figure out how things worked. But I also did relatively well in English classes, loved to read novels, liked being around people, and had a streak of altruism and dedication to socially relevant issues. So on the one hand, I exhibited the stereotypical “geek” profile of a budding engineer, but on the other, I also embraced some of the “artsy” characteristics of an activist and humanist. Human factors engineering, because it deals with people and technology, allowed me to pursue all of my interests -- to use both sides of my brain, not just half of it.

When I first thought of writing this book, my goal was to explain the social relevance of my discipline to an educated lay audience, because hardly anybody has heard of human factors engineering even though the lack of fit between us and our technologies burdens our lives daily and has even changed the course of human history (I am not exaggerating, as you will see in the pages that follow). But I wound up doing something quite different, and the reasons why are instructive.

About 95 per cent of the work done by human factors engineers is relatively narrow and deals with designing for individual needs: ergonomic office chairs, user-friendly software, and the like. But what I’m going to describe in this book deals with a vastly broader set of problems arising out of the relationship between people and technology, not just at the level of the individual but also at the team level, the organizational and even the political level. I could tell you that this is what human factors engineering is and you’d probably take my word for it because you’ve never heard of the discipline anyway. But most of the conceptual territory that I’m staking out in this book has not been extensively travelled, let alone actively explored or thoroughly mined by my discipline.

That’s an important observation because the negative impact of technology on contemporary society goes well beyond the frustrations caused by the myriad user-unfriendly widgets that surround us in the modern world. The negative impact is also clear in much larger problems, like the terrifying impact of fatal medical errors, the irreversible devastation of our natural environment, the deadly threats to safety in the aviation and nuclear power sectors, the contamination of our drinking water, and even the integrity of the democratic process. Don’t get me wrong -- this isn’t a book of complaints and whining about the negative consequences of technology. On the contrary, most of the pages that follow will be devoted to discovering how to make technological systems serve our needs. I hope it will take readers on a journey of understanding, and I’ll begin the journey by giving a sense of why technology is wreaking havoc, and providing a new way of thinking that makes the human factor central to the design of effective technology in the modern world, whether it be a gadget or a more complex system. Then I’ll go on to describe a number of solutions to show what we can and must do to regain control of technology, in our daily lives, in our businesses and in our society at large.

We already know how to design technology that works for people. But what is now becoming clear is that we could apply this knowledge much more widely, we could help solve many persistent social problems of local and global interest and improve the quality of life of everyone on the planet. As a result, the relationship between people and technology isn’t just of primary concern to human factors engineers; it’s also relevant to a growing number of people from many different walks of life -- perhaps you’re one of them -- people who don’t think of themselves as human factors engineers. The problems we’re facing as a society are so complex and so pressing that they simply will not yield to any one discipline or profession. They require the adaptation of technology to human nature on a grand scale -- what I am calling in this book a “Human-tech Revolution.”


From the Hardcover edition.

“[Kim Vicente] calls for a revolution in thinking.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“Refreshingly, The Human Factor is not a techonophile’s rant. [Vicente] takes a considered look at how we can turn around our sometimes frustrating dealings with machines and bureaucracies and use them instead of them using us. And, even more importantly, how we can make all of this safer. Vicente underlines his premise with extraordinary statistics. … [H]e simplifies complex ideas and presents them along with simple diagrams.”
—Christopher Dewdney (poet, author of The Natural History), The Globe and Mail

“Vicente has a wonderful ability to find the perfect example to illustrate each of [the book’s] principles. … Each chapter of this amazing book has its own strenths. … This is no ordinary book; it is a joy to read, instructuve and provocative. Vicente has been hailed as one of the 25 Canadians under 40 who will reshape Canada. Having read The Human Factor, I find that easy to believe.”
—The Edmonton Journal

“By turns enchanting and disturbing, Vicente’s marvellous book is full of advice on how to make this a more elegant, as well as a safer, world.”
—Maclean’s

Advance Praise:
“What form of social change could save lives, boost the economy, and increase health and happiness, all without political wrangling or moralistic finger-pointing? The answer: making our technology work better with human minds and bodies. This delightful and important book explains how we can at last reap the fruits of the recent revolution in technology. It should be required reading for all engineers.” -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Blank Slate and How the Mind Works

“This book may well be a landmark in changing our view of technology, and its place in our world. Kim Vicente is a visionary. He understands the value of using technology to help people, rather than technology for the sake of technology. He places human needs and values first. The world today badly needs such people.” -- Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams

“Kim Vicente is an engineer who understands how all our lives are being engineered. You will put down this book with a new awareness of the link between devices and those who use them. And you will have been greatly entertained.” -- John Polanyi, Nobel Laureate

“This book saves lives. Strong words? Yes, but this is a strong book: engaging, easy to read, but carrying a powerful message. We have far too long neglected the human and social side of technology. When accidents happen, we rush to find blame, to sue, fire, penalize and otherwise punish people when it is the system that is at fault. The result is needless accidents in vehicles, hospitals, manufacturing plants and, worse, no way of stemming the tide, of learning from our actions and making life better, safer, more enjoyable. The Human Factor can indeed revolutionize the way we live with technology. Read this book: it can save lives.” -- Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group

"We've all had frustrating experiences with gadgets, devices, and machines that seem to have been designed by idiots.  They make our lives more difficult and sometimes even dangerous.  The designers weren't really idiots, of course, but they failed because they hadn't taken full account of the physical, psychological, social, and political context in which their designs had to function.  Kim Vicente peels away this context like the layers on an onion, and in the process tells the true story of why so many of the technologies critical to our lives fall so short of their potential.  He shows us how technologies are far more than mere machines – they are creations of societies as well as scientists and engineers.  And he shows us, too, how we all have an urgent responsibility to understand what makes technologies succeed or fail.  Moving from toothbrushes to nuclear reactors to the Walkerton water tragedy, The Human Factor is a triumph of investigation, analysis, and marvelous storytelling – a must-read at the dawn of the technology-supercharged 21st century." -- Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Ingenuity Gap


From the Hardcover edition.

In 1999, KIM VICENTE was chosen by TIME magazine as one of twenty-five Canadians under the age of forty as a "Leader for the 21st Century who will shape Canada's future." A professor of engineering at the University of Toronto, he lectures widely around the world and has acted as consultant to, amongst others, NASA, NATO, the US Air Force, the US Navy, Microsoft and Nortel.
He lives in Toronto.