Human Factors Trials – An interview with Vicki Wall FCIEHF

Many practitioners believe that working on Trials and Assessments, where equipment and systems that have been designed and developed are tested with users, are some of the most enjoyable parts of being involved in Human Factors. You get to see kit actually being used and getting feedback, both positive and negative, and discussing with them what can be done to improve the product.  Vicki Wall is a Fellow of the CIEHF, and has over 20 years experience of being a practitioner, primarily in the defence sector where she has participated and led a wide variety of trials and assessments. In this episode, we discuss the differences between industrial assessments and academic trials, as well as the key things to remember as well as where to go for tools and techniques to use. We also talk about how she got into Human Factors via a newspaper advert which kick-started a career which currently sees her at BAE Systems. One of the references we talk about is the Human Factors Methods book, by Stanton et al - can be found on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Factors-Methods-Neville-Stanton/dp/1409457540  (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Factors-Methods-Neville-Stanton/dp/1409457540)Vicki also wrote an article in the Ergonomist in 2018 (No. 568), where she talks about how HF has impacted military aviation.