Human Factors Midterm & Final Projects
Throughout my time in the human factors program at Tufts, I have been challenged in a multitude of ways to complete human factors projects on a short timeline. Many of these projects take the form of large midterm or final exams for my classes. Below is a selection of the projects I’m most proud of - showcasing work that doesn’t fall under its own dedicated page.
. Ergonomics in Design
. Ergonomics in Design
This was a two-week, three-person group project where we needed to compare the design and dimensions three brands of a household product with each other. This project had the following objectives:
Pick a product (computer mouse) and find three brands
Decide which body dimensions correlate to usage (hand measurements)
Find public datasets with related body measurements & percentiles
Analyze each mouse’s features’ intended designs
Measure each mouse’s relevant dimensions and compare to relevant human body measurement percentiles (5th percentile female and 95th percentile male)
Compare the three brands
Mini Assignment 5 | Fall, 2024
Professor Nick Katis
. Consumer Psychology
. Consumer Psychology
This final was a month-long, five-person project where we would select a retail space to visit and analyze from a consumer psychology perspective to provide recommendations for space changes.
The project included the following components:
Shopper demographics and psychographics
Analysis of interior design choices (lighting, colors & contrast, fonts, branding, smells & music, positioning)
Analysis of navigation and information architecture
Analysis of style choices (materials, images, colors, lighting, constraints)
Analysis of intended impressions
Considerations of space features (accessibility & eco-friendliness)
Analysis of target audience
After this project, we presented a short recap to the class including information about our analysis, research methods and findings, and takeaways including recommendations for changes. This presentation can be found here.
Retail Space Analysis Final Project | Spring, 2024
Professor James Intriligator
. Human-Machine System Design
. Human-Machine System Design
This exam was a week-long individual project that involved choosing an expert, analyzing their task, introducing automation, and then re-analyzing the task. I chose the artist Ashley Gibson, who crafts “Mushling” dolls by hand. The project included the following:
Interviewing the expert to analyze their task
Creating a pre-automation workflow diagram
Creating a post-automation task analysis diagram
Creating a post-automation workflow diagram
Completing a human-machine system breakdown
Creating a human-machine system diagram
Analyzing and graphing automation levels and stages
Analyzing and documenting trust between entities, autonomy, and arbitration
Midterm Exam 1 | Fall, 2023
Professor Dan Hannon
. Human-Machine System Design
. Human-Machine System Design
This exam was a week-long, open-book, open-notes exam with questions related to the following concepts:
Fitts’ Law
Information Theory
Hick Hyman Law
Signal Detection Theory
For a complete list of exam questions, click here.
Midterm Exam 2 | Fall, 2023
Professor Dan Hannon
. Human-Machine System Design
. Human-Machine System Design
This cumulative project involved choosing a human-machine system that I experienced in my life and then apply three analytical perspectives to it from class. I chose to analyze my Apple Watch, and the project included the following components:
Workflow & Task Analysis
Workflow diagram
Task analysis
Observations and recommendations
Automation
System constraints
Task allocation
Automation levels
Trust and arbitration
Signal Detection Theory
Semester Project | Fall, 2023
Professor Dan Hannon
. Applied Behavioral Statistics
. Applied Behavioral Statistics
This exam was a week-long project that involved choosing an empirical article to analyze from a statistical perspective. Using my knowledge of R from the class, I needed to complete the following objectives:
Choose an article with a robust data set and analysis
Characterize the data and consider its validity and how easily it can be cleaned in R
Decide if the authors make their case statistically
Describe the within or between-subjects design and how challenging it would be to switch
Consider how to modify the analysis to include an ANOVA and linear regression, as well as how we would interpret the results
Describe one other lasting concept I learned
Final Exam | Fall, 2023
Professor Dan Hannon
. Applied Behavioral Statistics
. Applied Behavioral Statistics
This final project was a week-long project that involved running a “small-n experiment,” or an experiment with a very small number of participants, and then using R to conduct a statistical analysis to either accept or reject the null hypothesis. My chosen experiment involved two conditions; one where the participants typed as fast as they could on a typing test alone, and one where the participants typed as fast as they could while competing with a researcher. The project included the following components:
Choose a study and create an experimental procedure
Conduct the study
Export the data and clean it if necessary
Use R to analyze the .csv file
Accept or reject the null hypothesis (competition makes people type faster than individually) and then describe why
Final Project | Fall, 2023
Professor Dan Hannon
. Methods for Human Factors Engineering
. Methods for Human Factors Engineering
This exam was a week-long individual project that involved creating hypothetical exam questions for a series of topics covered in class and then answering them. Topics covered on the exam included the following:
Knowledge elicitation
Anthropometry
Biomechanics
Heuristic review
Mental workload
Error analysis
User testing
Mental models
Final Exam | Spring, 2022
Professor Dan Hannon