Development and Demonstration of an Integrated, Independent Human Factors Evaluation Process for Space Payloads and Equipment, including Associated Procedures, User’s Manuals, Displays and Labels

At NASA, and in everyday life experience, there are multiple examples of equipment that has passed through a rigorous requirements validation process, but which nevertheless is shown to have major usability difficulties upon implementation and actual use. At NASA, these usability difficulties can have a major impact on very precious resources— crew time on-orbit and the time of ground controllers. In extreme cases, such as responding to emergencies, usability difficulties can even threaten the physical well being of the crew.