Ergonomics Books

Used this book for an introductory course to human factors engineering. I'll say it was written in a way that made it easy to understand, with lists and clear examples. I do wish that there were more diagrams for conveying some of the ideas. Including the lens model diagram inside this book along with a brief section on it would have worked wonders, though. Otherwise, it was a good book.

I've used this book in my human factors grad/undergrad class for 4 years. This book is the only text in human factors with up to date information from research in cognitive science, and a cognitive science perspective on human error. The book is weaker on the ergonomics and design side, and quite weak on social aspects of human factors. I use the book in combination with Don Norman's book and the Casey book of case studies.

I do not require students to memorize the book. They use it as a reference for doing problem solving and case analyses. It contains good research references and many important facts and figures that human factors and design professionals need.

This was the single most atrocious example of a "text book" I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Very poor editing throughout, and often the outline structure was unnavigable. Adding to that problem, was poor grammar and sections that simply made no sense. "...incentive programs are effective over long periods of time as long as they are not dropped permanently at some point." My suggestion, if you have a class that requires this textbook, find a new class.

Just finished a HF course and this was the required text for the course. This text is awful. Very poor writing, incorrect or misleading info is presented, in the area's of work physiology, etc. The author did not explore or offer ANY additional insight in area's such as bio-mechanics etc.. HUGE sections of the text are pure quotes from other sources.. Very poor.. All I can say is thank goodness I was able to sell the book.

Wickens et al. really fill the gap between system engineering and cognitive psychology. I have found quite a few of books of this kind.
The book contains good examples and references for workplace design, environmental conditions and several other applications that make it useful for a course textbook or professional's desk reference.
One word of caution (mea culpa as well): the authors did not address in this version the engineering tradition of poor, monotonous writing.

The item was not arriving after 3 weeks. Contacted the seller asking what was happening with it and received a refund without further contact.
This seemed to be a bargain(that is to say 5 for the price of 1) and is indeed too good to be true - I really should have known better.
This is the second time that Amazon has let me down regarding misleading/false advertising. They need to review their quality control system badly and drop sellers like these.

I'd give it 0 stars and even a minus review if it were possible to do so.

Drivers for the 64 bit version of Windows XP are available on their website. You just need to search in their drivers section for the 64 bit version of intellitype.

Purchased product based on "pack of 5" description. It was not a pack of five, just one (1) OEM box with no software. Could not get them to send me the other four. No help whatsoever

Keyboard takes getting used to. If you hop to other machines with a regular keyboard, you need to adjust back to using a regular keyboard.

I believe it has minimized the pain that was starting in my wrist (reason for trying keyboard).

The only problem that I had was with order. The description said (pack of 5) but only received one keyboard in a huge box. Upon research I received numerous reponses from Amazon on what "pack of 5" was; including this item was one keyboard with five USB components (totally did not make sense to me). I was expecting to received five keyboards. When they finally confirmed the order, there were no keyboards left so I was refunded for four keyboards. Resolving the order shortage took a lot of my time. Amazon said that they would check on what "pack of 5" meant and call me back but I ended up having to call them when I did not receive a reply. Credit for items not shipped was received timely.

Pros: It's the most comfortable keyboard I've ever used, and I've been typing extensively for decades. If you've never used this type of keyboard before, it will take a little time, like a week or two to get used to the placement of keyes, but I'm sure you will be enjoying it more and more every day. Soft tactile response is exceptionally pleasant. The zoom slider would be excellent, if it always worked as intended (see below).

Cons: I bought this keyboard to be sure it's compatible with my new 64-bit system. My reasoning was, if the 64-bit Windows are created by Microsoft and this keyboard is designed by Microsoft, the two must fit each other perfectly. Well, this is not exactly the case.

Apparently Microsoft was too busy to design a native 64-bit driver for their keyboards. The driver that comes with this keyboard works with both the 32 and 64-bit Windows, but functionality in the 64- bit OS is limited. You can type fine and most function keys work as intended, but you can not use the volume up/down function even with the Microsot Media Player in the 64-bit Windows, as it won't work. Also the zoom slider works fine in the MS Word and most IE browsing situations, but does not work with the 64-bit Mozilla (Deer Park version) and even in IE sometimes starts acting strange (such as suddenly becoming a scroll wheel, instead of a zoom). I guess, Microsoft shouldn't complain that many software and hardware companies ignore the 64-bit version of Windows, as they themselves keep "forgetting" about it.

Another small drawback is that the "Enter" key is a bit too small for comfort. But I got used to it and it doesn't bother me anymore.

My conclusion: This is a fantastic keyboard for anyone who types a lot. It lliterally makes typing a joy. Let's hope its functionality in Windows XP Pro x64 OS will be upgraded with a new native 64-bit driver in the near future.

This book has usefull data but it's not pleasant to read, I believed that I'll find more new data and techniques in ergonomics. It contains some tables with usefull information which can be used in your design parameters.

UI design has moved forward a lot since this book came out, but there's still material of value here. The suggestions about user-oriented language are still important, including the help your tech writer has to offer. Task analysis, although this predates commercial acceptance of OO, sounds a lot like the Agile world's "stories." And testing - it's just as important now as ever, especially for mission-critical interfaces, for mass-produced products where errors are costly, and for unfmailiar application areas (do you really know how a radiologist reads an Xray, for example?). Too bad most projects lack the schedule or budget for UI testing these days - but, thanks to books like this, good UI design is much more widely understood these days.

Still, after more than 20 years, so much has changed in the world that this book won't have the impact it did back in the day. Don't bother hunting this book down - but if you find it, thumb through it for its 100 or so aphoristic "guidelines." Many of them still apply, including:
- Verify that help helps. (Does the user really know what those words mean?)
- Coordinate all system responses. (Don't use a crazy quilt of mismatched terminology.)
- Avoid clutter. (Read Tufte if you don't know what this means - or even if you do.)

//wiredweird

I don't have my book yet!!!

UPS sent back to you the book and now I don't have it

Please, I need to know what is going to happen with my book or my payment. If you will not send the book again to me I need a refund of my money

I still have not recieved the book. Please refund my money.

Wisam

This book has lots of great tables and charts for any engineer working on ergonomic issues in a plant. If you're looking for design ergonomics, this is the wrong book.

managers are often reticent to go beyond common sense in product design, oftentimes a book like this one can show them the power of smarter decisions when it comes to ergonomic considerations (beyond common sense).
Also, the book enables industrial designers to begin acquire the right tools to communicate design-ergonomic decisions to the remainder of the design-management team.

A very refreshing book on ergonomics applied successfully and from the point of view of this science as a business advantage. No hard core tables of values and anthropometric values, plenty of business cases.

Though the word "sunrooms" is included in the title, there are fewer than five sunrooms featured in this book.

Most of the featured houses would cost $3-5million if purchased in California. The porch on the front cover is illustrative of the porches featured inside. If you can't afford the house that goes with that porch, you won't be able to afford the porches on the interior either.

This complaint is no small matter--the issues that arise in trying to make the most of limited space with a limited budget are different from the issues faced by a multi-millionaire designing a dream house with a dream view.

The self-congratulatory text concludes, "You've seen spectacular examples of porch design and been directed to the details that set them apart. Along the way, you've witnessed what is possible no matter the circumstances, regardless of the size of a house." I disagree.

I'm merely an air traffic control student, but i've had this book assigned by a professor and it's my assesment that it is intended more for the benefit of air traffic management systems engineers than for those looking to gain a basic working knowledge of current systems and how people use them. I suspect that she picked it because of title, and becuase Flight to the Future: Human Factors in Air Traffic Control is apparently out of print. I find it very dry and overly-technical for my needs.

Much, much better than "Cats"

Each chapter in this book is written by a different author which leads to inconsistencies in terminology as well as level of subject matter presented. The book feels slapped together and the content does not seem to flow in a logical fashion. The book is very hard to follow due to the way it was organized. You often cover content in great detail before you get the basic intro to the subject three chapters later. I would not recommend this book.