Review of "Human Factors Design Handbook, by Wesley E. Woodson." McGraw-Hill, 1981

Abstract

of a cohesive group dedicated to a single objective — shipment of the first Eagle. Technically, the book will meet with mixed reviews. System programmers and hardware designers may view Kid-der's many technical discussions as oversimplifications , while the technological neophyte will wonder why the boo k includes uninteresting digressions into microcode, simulation , diagnostics and so on. However, for those of us jus t downriver from hardware design, Kidder ' s technical discussions provide an easy-to-read tutorial on important subjects we might not otherwise explore. The book also reveals an interesting ethical issue involving the low-cost strategies Data General employed to motivate this relatively naive project team. Increasingly, productivity has become an important watchword, both fo r our industry and the country, but do the methods Kidde r describes exceed socially acceptable limits? Has Data General ' s management maliciously manipulated its inexperienced stars in exchange for a year of grueling work , restricted social lives and little or no financial reward fo r the heroic effort? Or perhaps, we are seeing computer en-gineerings' equivalent to the medical student's internship , the Ph .D .'s dissertation or the would-be public accountant' s two-year servitude as an auditor. Manipulation or initia-tion? It depends, I suppose, upon the privileges afforded t o an accepted member of the club. Kidder ' s book will be read by managers, many of who m will adopt as their own some of the project managemen t strategies described therein. But I hope the book also find s an audience in our schools of engineering and compute r science. No one who reads the book will innocently becom e a "Hardy Boy " or "micro kid. " The subtitle of this book is Information and Guidelines for the Design of Systems, Facilities, Equipment and Product s for Human Use. As the title suggests, the book is a monster. In more than 1,000 pages with nearly 500 illustrations , Woodson has produced a monumental work that focuses o n human-oriented design. The term "design " is used here in its fullest meaning. Included are human-factors considerations related to th e design of, among other things, transportation, architecture , military, communications and industrial systems. Unlik e other human-factor references, this work ". .. is directe d toward the engineer or designer, as opposed to being directed primarily toward the human-factor specialist. " The book contains a wealth of …