ABSTRACT
Guidelines for selecting human factors methods and measures for test and evaluation have been proposed and have been organized around test considerations, and theoretical frameworks, or a combination of all three. The origin for what became known as the Situation, Individual, Task, and Effect approach came from a practical need to explain human factors test results to people unfamiliar with human factors. Even a cursory introduction to the field of human factors test and evaluation reveals a dizzying array of test issues, measurement methodologies, and analysis paradigms. The situation category is composed of human factors issues associated with the environment in which the human operator or user of the system is placed. Human factors engineering is not in and of itself a principal goal of most system designs, and as such, human factors testing is all too often omitted from design activities unless the linkage between those designs and the “things that matter” are made evident to system developers.
