The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Health Canada have published a joint guidance on the application and use of human factors principles in the product development process.
Issued earlier this year by the CPSC’s Division of Human Factors and Health Canada’s Risk Assessment Division of its Consumer and Hazardous Products Safety Directorate, the “Guidance on the Application of Human Factors to Consumer Products” is intended to help developers and manufacturers of consumer products take into account four separate human factors considerations, as follows: 1) the intended product use environment; 2) the intended product user; 3) the product design or user interface; and 4) the tasks to be accomplished by the user.
The Guidance also proposes the adoption of human factors considerations in each of the six separate stages of product design, including product planning, idea and concept generation, design and development, testing and validation, production, and post-production evaluation.
According to the Guidance, developers, and manufacturers who adopt the four human factor principles throughout the six stages of product design, developers and manufacturers are more likely to produce consumer products that are safer and easier for consumers to use, while also reducing product lifecycle cost and risks.
