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Updated: October 26
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NewsletterUpdated: October 26 |
| October '98 | Volume 33 Number 8 |
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http://www.erols.com/hfespoc |
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Recently I completed a course conducted by the Greely Institute that led to Certification as a Focus Group Director (CFGD). The course was well done and I would recommend it to anyone interested in focus groups. The purpose of this piece is twofold. One is to discuss the relevance of focus groups to the practice of human factors; the other is to share some ideas regarding certification.
Over the years, I have conducted numerous group interviews. I have also heard and read much about focus groups. I was curious as to the difference, if any, between the two. There is a range of methods for focus groups, but the modal method, if you will, appears to be fairly close to my group interview method. Theoretically, focus groups are nondirective and nonjudgmental. A principal objective is to provide an atmosphere in which ideas and feelings emerge freely. The data analysis involves the organization and interpretation of these ideas and feelings. I have used group interviews to complement questionnaires and, sometimes, performance data. In these interviews I took pains not to impose my biases and preconceptions on the participants to assure that I would not miss any new, from my point of view, issues. I was also interested in the feelings the participants held toward the topic of discussion. Not surprisingly, given that the ultimate goal for focus groups is usually commercial success, feelings are very important in the focus group context. I am not so sure as to how often feelings are considered in human factors assessments, but I would argue that they are quite important.
A question to ask is whether focus groups provide a useful methodology for human factors research. I think they are already being used, and I think that the profession would benefit from their more extensive use. Understand that I am not advocating the replacement of current methodologies with focus groups, but rather adding focus groups where they are appropriate. There is an unfortunate distinction between human factors and marketing. The distinction is unfortunate as there is ample funding in the private sector for marketing, but scant support for human factors. Indeed, there is a need to cost-justify the benefits of human factors research. If human factors were regarded as part of the marketing enterprise, however, then there would be more of a commercial demand for human factors services. This requires human factors professionals to broaden and repackage their skills. In my view, however, given the research and statistical skills of many human factors types, there is much to offer the field of marketing.
Finally, I would like to offer my views regarding certification. One of the problems I have with certification is that the field of human factors and ergonomics is so broad, that I believe it is impossible for anyone to maintain a high degree of competence in the entire field. Thus, certification can either indicate a nodding acquaintance with the entire field or detailed competence in areas deemed important by a particular certification board. Consequently, certification means nothing to me when I am making hiring decisions. In reviewing the job requirements listed in the Job Placement Service on the HFES website, I see few requirements for certification. Hence, I believe that most other employers hold views similar to mine. I know what skills I want and I will look for and probe for these skills in a potential job candidate. As for myself, I know what areas I am interested in, and I have no motivation to expand my skills in areas of no special interest to me, but deemed important by a certification board.
Rather than conduct a profession wide certification, certification in specific areas should be considered. The focus group workshop provides an example. Certification could be offered for workshops in other specific areas. In addition to workshops, home-study courses and exams could do much to enhance professional development. I think a paradigm of certifying specific skills rather than broad, all encompassing certification, would be more worthwhile.
Doug Griffith
Directions:
From Route 66, take the Rosslyn exit; go to the second light and turn right onto Ft. Myer Dr; see below.
From Route 395, take the Ft. Myer exit; go 300 yds and take the off ramp to Ft. Myer; see below
From the 14th St. Bridge; cross the bridge into VA and take the Washington Blvd. Exit; from Washington Blvd, take the Ft. Myers exit; see below
Take Ft. Myer Dr. to where it dead ends at the wall outside Arlington Cemetary. The gate to Ft. Myer will be within sight from there. You will need to show a photo ID to the guard at the gate. Proceed to the Officers' Club by driving up the hill, past the Parade Ground on the right, and then past the tennis courts on the right. Turn right into the parking lot just beyond the tennis courts. The Officers' Club is the building next to the swimming pool. We are meeting in the Devers Room.
Note – We have a standing offer to Student Members of the Chapter: Dinner at a monthly meeting FOR FREE if you write up a synopsis of the meeting for publication in the Newsletter. Contact the Newsletter Editor when interested.
The December meeting of the Chapter will be held on Tuesday, December 8, 1998 in the Champagne Room at the Ft. Myer Officers’ Club. It will be a joint meeting with the local chapter of the Institute for Industrial Engineers (IIE). Congressman Tom Davis, U.S. Representative from Virginia’s 11th Congressional district, will be the speaker. Mr. Davis, who serves on the House Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Technology, will speak on the topic, "The Role of Science and Technology in Determining the U.S. Economic Outlook." In that a festive, holiday atmosphere will prevail, and in the hope that the speaker will be of general interest, we are encouraging non-members, spouses, and significant others to join us. The format of the meeting will be altered slightly – reception and cash bar at 6:00 p.m., dinner at 7:00 p.m., and program at 8:00 p.m.
Founded in 1948, IIE is an international, nonprofit, professional society dedicated to advancing the technical and managerial excellence of industrial engineers. The Institute is committed to provide the most timely information about the profession to its members, professionals who share industrial engineering concerns, businesses and industries that employ industrial engineers, and the general public. IIE strives to provide full-value continuing education opportunities that enhance members’ capabilities to improve productivity and quality in the workplace while imaging the progressive contributions made by the profession. IIE provides a number of products and services to aid in this endeavor, including professional trade books, periodicals, professional journals, conferences, seminars and workshops. The local chapter has about 300 members.
The January, 1999 meeting of the Chapter will be a tour and presentation of ongoing research activities of the Applied Research in Cognition and Human Factors (ARCH) Lab at George Mason University. This meeting will be hosted by Dr. Debbie Boehm-Davis of GMU. Stay tuned for the date and time.
The September meeting of the Potomac Chapter took place on September 23 at the Ft. Myer Officers’ Club and featured Dr. Astrid Schmidt-Nielsen, of the Navy Research Lab, presenting her research on speaker recognition. The problem of recognizing a speaker by his/her voice, particularly over telecommunication systems, is one that we, of course, frequently encounter in our daily activities and are quite proficient at. It is also of interest for security purposes, and so various automated approaches have been developed. Dr. Schmidt-Nielsen and colleagues have been conducting extensive research aimed at comparing the performance of these automated systems with each other and with human listerners. Her presentation addressed some of the factors that influence the performance of speaker recognition systems, which are somewhat different from those that determine speech recognition. Most striking is the fact that, under a wide variety of conditions, none of the automated systems yet approach the accuracy of human listeners.
Dr. Dan Welch, Chapter Secretary, has recently taken a new position with SAIC. Dan is working in SAIC’s Simulation Technology Division, Ballston, VA, supporting various projects in the intelligence community.
We all owe Don Weitzman our thanks for lining up meeting times and places for the last several meetings. The Chapter has been without a Local Arrangements Chair this year, no one having stepped forward and volunteered to do this job. Don has graciously helped out by arranging reservations for us at the Ft. Myer Officers’ Club for the last several meetings of the year.
Recent past issues of the Users’ Perspective are now posted on the Potomac Chapter website. Please visit www.erols.com/hfespoc for this and other useful information. Thanks to Penny Church, our Webmaster, for her stewardship of the site.
[Editor’s Note – The following is drawn from Star Mountain’s web-site, www.starmountain.com]
On April 29, 1998, Star Mountain merged with six other leading training specialty companies into a new "roll-up" company called Provant, Inc. The seven Provant founding companies are:
All seven Provant companies are recognized leaders in their respective fields and have developed a broad array of services and products, a substantial knowledge base created from years of research and development, and a well established client base.
Provant, Inc. became a publicly traded company via an initial public offering (IPO), on April 29, 1998. According to the April edition of Training Magazine, Provant will be one of the ten largest training companies in the United States. The level of interest and positive feedback received when telling the Provant story to members of the investment community across the country far exceeded expectations.
Provant was founded by Paul Verrochi, a well known entrepreneur with previous roll-up experience, who was selected as Inc. Magazine's 1995 National Entrepreneur of the Year for Emerging Growth Companies. Provant's President is Dr. Jack Zenger, a training expert, who was formerly Chairman of the Times Mirror Training Group, one of the nation's largest training companies.
Star Mountain joined this group in order to enhance its expansion and acquisition strategy and to leverage cross-selling opportunities. Star Mountain is the only provider of products and services to the government sector.
Star Mountain will retain its name and will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Provant, with A. Carl von Sternberg continuing to serve as President of Star Mountain. Star Mountain will continue to maintain the same personnel and internal structure.
To the Editor:
I want to commend Kent Norman on his outstanding piece, "The Usability Professional’s Dilemma." In the event readers of this newsletter happened to overlook this article, I would remind them that it is still available at the HFESPOC website www.erols.com/hfespoc
For myself, the article provided some answers to a question that is often on my mind, viz, why is there such a boom in technology employment, but a comparative dearth of positions in Human Factors and Ergonomics? A challenging, but depressing exercise, is to look for the human factors positions in the Technology Section of the Washington Post. Currently there are 147 members of the Potomac Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. That seems to be a rather small number for an area as large as the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
According to Norman, we need angry users to raise the awareness of usability problems. He provides a list of reasons why users are not angry. For a variety of these reasons users are not aware that not only can products me made more usable, but that they should also demand that be made more usable. They should learn to blame the system rather than themselves when usability problems are encountered.
Vendors of software products frequently profit from the lack of usability in their products. By failing to make software easy to use, they are able to provide training services at additional profit. To the best of my knowledge, no business has ever sued a software vendor for increased costs due to lack of usability. Nor have I ever read of a business that purchased software with a requirement that training time be negligible. We need to avail ourselves of every opportunity to make users as well as users’ employers aware of their rights so that they demand a high level of usability in all their products.
Norman also mentions the special role of educators. Indeed this is the best forum in which to introduce human factors issues and the concept of user rights. In the field of Human Factors we often consider the issue of the training of Human Factors Professionals. While this is certainly important, I ask you to consider the leverage that would be achieved if something in the way of Human Factors worked itself into MBA and law curricula. Then we might see a real increase in the demand for our services.
The DC_CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) group will hold its fall 1998 meeting on October 26th, at 7:30 at the
The meeting will be in Room 375. You must be registered to attend the meeting as we must let NSF know in advance the number AND NAMES of visitors. Please e-mail Allison Druin <allisond@umiacs.umd.edu> by noon, Oct. 23, if you wish to attend.
If you are interested in arriving early (6 pm.) for dinner, we will be reserving places and advance ordering at Tara Tia (4001 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA). - about 4 blocks from NSF. Dinner choices are:
Dinner will be around $9, not including beverage. Dawn Tice <dawn@amazon.ncsl.nist.gov> will accept e-mail orders until noon Oct. 23rd.
Speakers: Jenny Preece, Ron
Rice & David Silver
Chair: Jenny Preece
The three panelists will discuss how the environment in which people communicate and the supporting software interact to shape communication and community. During the first part of the evening each speaker will present his/her work for 15 minutes. Then there will be general discussion.
Searching for Empathy in 100 communities? (Jenny Preece, University of Maryland, Baltimore County)
The word community is used very liberally to describe many different groups and interactions between people in cyberspace. Nobody knows how many online communities exist on the internet. New ones are born every day. Determining whether these collections of people constitute a community or merely a discussion group is less important than identifying the features that contribute to the incredible impact that some of these groups have on people's lives. A study of 100 online communities reveals the influence of topic, gender and moderation on empathic communication.
Communication Networks and Organizational Information Systems (Ron Rice, Rutgers University)
Formal and informal social structures both influence and are influenced by organizational information systems. This presentation reviews research and conceptual issues related to this recursive relationship.
Cyberculture: Communication, Community and Design (David Silver, University of Maryland, College Park)
In the last few years, the Internet has expanded from a medium for communication to a site of culture. This online culture, or cyberculture, is becoming increasingly integrated into the everyday lives of millions of Americans and users worldwide. This presentation focuses on communities, and community networks. Examples will be drawn from a study of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, which reveals the how the design of a community network helps to determine the interactions and discussions of its users.
Don't miss this rare chance to hear the latest thinking from national experts on creating "insanely great" startups and locating elusive angel investors who fund them. Sign up now -- before it's too late – for "Angels and Revolutionaries: Financing and Creating Startups in the New Economy," a Potomac KnowledgeWay Netpreneur Program Event, presented by the Morino Institute and sponsored by Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.November 19, McLean Hilton Hotel, McLean, Virginia:
You must pre-register online to attend, to register: <http://netpreneur.org/angels>
On November 19, at least a thousand netpreneurs and early-stage investors will hear Silicon Valley revolutionary Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist of Apple and now CEO of Garage.com http://garage.com debut his new book (release January 1999) "Rules for Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating New Products and Services" at the evening event. Gerald Benjamin, founder of the largest nationwide private investor network and co-author of award-winning book, "Finding Your Wings: How to Locate Private Investors to Fund Your Venture," will follow with his thoughts on the present and future of angel investing. Commenting on Mr. Benjamin's views will be:
During the afternoon, prior to the main event, Gerald Benjamin will provide insights into the world of angel investing with his nationally-known Business Angel Seminar "Finding Your Wings, How to Locate Private Investors to Fund Your Venture." Delivered for the first time on the East Coast, the seminar will provide insights into the world of angel investing; it is offered at a significantly reduced rate to members of the Netpreneur Program community for an exceptional fee of $50. Seminar attendees will receive Mr. Benjamin's ground-breaking book on which the seminar is based. Seating is limited, so register today to be assured a seat. For more information and to register, go to <http://netpreneur.org/angels>.
Usability Engineering Specialist, Bell Atlantic, Baltimore, MD
Wild things are happening! At Bell Atlantic, we are committed to being a trusted guide in the confusing world of communications. Here, you'll have a chance to work with some of the best and brightest people in the industry on projects that are changing the face of communications. Not an idle promise, big things are happening here, and we're poised to become the premier communications company in the 21st century. To help us get there, we are now seeking a Usability Engineering Specialist to join our team.
If selected, you will design, conduct and analyze the results of usability tests; conduct usability evaluations and quality assurance testing throughout the design and development lifecycle; consult with clients on interface design and redesign; and provide general human factors research support. You will also identify and disseminate relevant human factors research, industry developments, style guides and process improvements.
To qualify, you will need at least a Master's degree in Human Factors or Applied Psychology or a related field, relevant experience with usability testing/evaluation, knowledge of quality assurance testing, and excellent communication skills. Extensive experience with PC and UNIX platforms is required. Experience in GUI design is highly desirable.
Interested candidates are encouraged to send resume and salary requirements to:
- Bell Atlantic
- Employment Department, Room 200
- 125 High Street
- Dept JK-UE-UTEST
- Boston, MA 02210
- fax: (617) 743-7164.
Bell Atlantic is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.
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Human Factors Engineer, DCS Corporation
DCS Corporation is seeking resumes from interested individuals for an opening in the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia area.
Job requirements: Advanced degree in Human Factors or related area, with at least 8 years experience in an applied setting. Candidate must be experienced in providing Human Factors Engineering support for hardware and software systems development to achieve program objectives. The position requires experience in the generation and execution of Human Factors Program plans, HFE test and evaluation plans, review of technical material for HFE implications, directing HFE efforts using assets that may be drawn from several organizations, participating in program and design reviews, performing HFE analyses to support the development of systems to execute an operational concept, and evaluating HFE products delivered by other organizations. The focus will be on systems development for air traffic control and air traffic management. The position requires working closely with the customer, operational users, maintainers, vendors, and R&D organizations.
Send resumes to:
- Dino Piccione
- DCS Corporation
- 1330 Braddock Place
- Alexandria, VA 22314
- dpiccion@dcscorp.com
The Local Chapter and this newsletter can be a valuable means of keeping each other informed of news and happenings that are of interest to kindred spirits. But we need your input. Please take the time to contribute items that you think will be of interest. For example, news of upcoming events, job openings, recently published books or articles, re-locations or new positions, calls for papers, news of government contract initiatives or strategic plans, book reviews, methodological notes, or provocative opinion pieces are all welcome. You can submit your contributions by e-mail (dhorst@userworks.com), phone (301-431-0500), or fax (301-431-4834) to Dick Horst, Newsletter Editor.
Murphy's Generic Laws:
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June, July, August, 1998 No meeting September 23, 1998 October, 1998 November, 1998 December, 1998 |
