Ergonomics and Forensic Engineering

Abstract

In disputes, forensic engineers routinely investigate available hardware and software and may examine other engineering attributes and activities. Human factors and ergonomic (HF&E) aspects may be considered, but these tend to be more limited or overlooked. This paper discusses an HF&E framework for forensic analysis, including its four major subdisciplines (micro-, meso-, macro-, and mega-ergonomics), the role each plays throughout the product life cycle, and examines their relationship to known and foreseeable use and misuse of a product or system. A taxonomy of errors, including distinguishing features of individual user errors versus system use errors, is presented and then used in a diagnostic rubric developed for forensic engineers to help identify HF&E issues as part of a forensic analysis. A health care setting case study is offered to demonstrate rubric use, but the rubric is generalizable to other domains.