Abstract
This study investigates how Human Factors (HF) is applied when designing and developing Immersive Visual Technologies (IVT), including Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Virtual Reality. We interviewed fourteen people working at different organizations, that develop IVT applications in the Nordic region. We used thematic analysis to derive themes from the interviews. The results showed an insufficient knowledge and application of HF in IVT development, due to the lack of awareness of both scope and significance of HF, resource allocation strategy, market inertia, stakeholder's involvement, standardization of HF application and IVT uses, and technology maturity. This situation could be improved by allocating experts, adjusting organizational strategy to balance resource allocation, training developers and user organizations to raise awareness and to encourage co-creative design and knowledge sharing, create a sense of ownership amongst stakeholders, and ensure the usefulness of the technology to the user's work.
Highlights
We present the results in three categories: (1) the context, that gives information about the status quo of application of Human Factors (HF) in Immersive Visual Technologies (IVT) development process and its themes, (2) the challenges mentioned explicitly and implicitly in applying enough HF to design and development process, and (3) suggestions for improvements that can enhance HF in IVT development process based on the interview data and its themes
The aim of this paper was to understand how HF is being applied in IVT development process across diverse industries
Three main questions were asked for this purpose: what is the status quo of HF in IVT software development? What are the challenges facing developers in applying sufficient HF? And how can HF application for IVT be improved? The answers to these questions helped to understand that HF application in IVT process is not well-understood by developers in its full scope, but it was partly practiced through usability testing and early end-user involvement in iterative design process
Summary
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (ISO/IEC, 2018) defines Human Factors (HF) as “scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among human and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.” ISO (ISO/IEC, 2018) defines “system” as a “combination of interacting elements organized to achieve one or more stated purposes.” This definition in ISO is elaborated on to state that a system is either a “product or as the services it provides” and that system includes “the associated equipment, facilities, material, computer programs, firmware, technical documentation, services and personnel required for operations and support to the degree necessary for self-sufficient use in its intended environment.” From the HF or ergonomics perspective, a system can be more thoroughly defined as Wilson (2014, p. 6):“A set of inter-related or coupled activities or entities(hardware, software, buildings, spaces, communities and people), with a joint purpose, links between the entities [. . . ], and which changes and modifies its state and the interactions within it given circumstances and events, and which is conceptualized as existing within a boundaries.”Human Factors in IVT Development ProcessApplying HF in early stages of software and technology development has been found to improve the efficiency and productivity of using technology, and organizational performance (Capretz, 2014; Calp and Akcayol, 2015). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (ISO/IEC, 2018) defines Human Factors (HF) as “scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among human and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.”. ISO (ISO/IEC, 2018) defines “system” as a “combination of interacting elements organized to achieve one or more stated purposes.”. This definition in ISO is elaborated on to state that a system is either a “product or as the services it provides” and that system includes “the associated equipment, facilities, material, computer programs, firmware, technical documentation, services and personnel required for operations and support to the degree necessary for self-sufficient use in its intended environment.”. The extent and quality of HF application in software design and development did not receive enough attention in early years because research findings have not always been grounded in understanding the nature of design and development and the complexities thereof (Stolterman, 2008)
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