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Judgements about the value and cost of human factors information in design

Abstract:

This research investigated the criteria by which designers of human-machine systems evaluate design information. It has been suggested that information search behavior is governed by three attributes of the information being sought: perceived relevance, perceived importance, and perceived cost. These ideas were formalized and empirically evaluated with a questionnaire study. Professional designers of nuclear power plant control rooms were asked to rate hypothetical information search questions in terms of relevance, importance, cost, and effort. In the general results, the findings show that a linear additive model with either relevance, importance, or both, as predictors provides the best fit for the ratings of the majority of respondents. Looking at the individual respondents though, cost was often a significant predictor in addition to importance and relevance. The findings have important practical implications for increasing the utilization of information during design.