Wichita State University’s Engineering 101 courses

Wichita State University’s Engineering 101 courses

Human Factors Ph.D. Program

Welcome to the class blog for Wichita State University’s Engineering 101 courses.

Engineering 101 is a three-hour course specifically designed for College of Engineering freshmen and transfer students in their first year at Wichita State University. This course provides application to being both engineering students and practicing engineers.

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In human factors, of course, we are specifically concerned with human interfaces. Typically, research in this field is geared towards improving productivity and reducing errors and injuries, and you can usually separate this into two categories: the application of human psychology and the implications of human anatomy.

Good psychological human factors design would include systems which are intuitive – someone new to the interface can operate it with little or no instruction. Can you think of any examples?

Good anatomical human factors design includes systems which are physically natural – using the system requires little strength or effort, or it could be used many times or over a long period without stress or injury. Can you think of any examples of this? ...

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Human Factors submissions

An example:

Human Factors – TuTh0930 – Spencer Shield


The problem:
The problem with spray bottles is that it is hard to read whether or not it is open at first glance. Most spray bottles have a labeling system of just being embossed on the nozzle with the words “on” or “off”. This way makes it hard for people with bad eye sight to understand whether or not it is open.

This is on.

This is off.












The solution:
The solution for this problem is to have the nozzle be color coded like stop lights. This makes it so people can tell if the nozzle is locked or not without having to strain their eyes. This solution is very practical and can be implemented easily in the production line. I think the original designers didn’t do this because of the cost of adding this step to the  production line.

The implementation:
The design would look like the fallowing. The red stands for when the nozzle is locked. The green stands for when the nozzle is unlocked.

Wichita State University’s Engineering 101 courses