The need for Human Factors can be determined by checking for a faulty process and/or poor products. In particular, you can:

• Analyze your organizational and commercialization processes for developing products. The purpose is to determine if the process fails to incorporate sufficient consideration of customers and users.
• Assess usability of existing products. The purpose is to determine if they fail to incorporate Human Factors principles and the extent to which the products result in customer dissatisfaction or additional costs.

Human Factors design can be achieved at reasonable initial cost. The investment can yield benefits in both revenue and cost savings.

• Makes customers want to buy your products
• Increases customer satisfaction when using the products
• Helps create brand loyalty and repeat business

Assuming you have established a need for Human Factors, getting the right kind of Human Factors help starts with knowing what you want to achieve, i.e., your goal. Does it relate to a process or to specific products? Does it call for design or evaluation activities or both? Does the level of effort require full-time, on-site help for an extended period, ongoing intermittent assistance, or a relatively short, one-time focused thrust? Finally, how quickly do you need the help?

• Perhaps the easiest way to start is to contact a professional society such as the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Usability Professionals Association, the Society for Technical Communication and the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of the American Computing Machinery (ACM). They can give you names of consulting firms of various types.
• Contact a nearby or large university and ask for the Department of Psychology, Industrial Engineering, or Computer Science. Human Factors and/or User Interface Design are usually curriculum options in one of these departments. Professors teaching these options may be able to refer you to appropriate resources.

We start by:

• Thoroughly understanding your need or problem. We listen to your perception of the problem and may ask a lot of “why” questions to help you clearly formulate the need.
• We prepare a Statement of Work that reflects our mutual understanding of the objective and scope of the work. We will tailor our services to fit our assessment of what needs to be done.