ABSTRACT
Although an understanding of detailed human factors guidelines is helpful when designing a medical device, a command of the general design principles of human factors engineering is critical. After all, clinicians and caregivers are usually able to cope with devices that have speci c design shortcomings as long as the aws do not lead to serious use errors or pose insurmountable obstacles to accomplishing a task. In fact, few medical devices are perfect from a user-interface design standpoint. They usually violate one speci c guideline or another. It’s another story altogether if a medical device violates a general human factors design principle.
