HFE-AT, with modifications to the supporting documentation (e.g., including relevant guidelines specifically developed for the domain of interest), can provide a tool to support human factors and human-system integration evaluations. Through the use of meta tags, content templates, and some customization, the supporting documentation could be changed so that domain-relevant recommendations and guidance are provided to perform human factors evaluations at the appropriate design stage. HFE-AT could be used by Department of Defense, both in acquisition and systems engineering applications. Here, the NASA guidelines would be replaced by, e.g., MIL-STD-1472, Human Engineering, and MIL-HDBK-46855, Human Engineering Program Process and Procedures. Similarly, the Federal Aviation Administration could use the tool to evaluate potential NextGen concepts. The FAA Human Factors Design Guide would provide one key source of relevant documentation. Federal prime contractors could also use this tool to help guide them in the human factors aspects of their large system integration design projects.
HFE-AT will be designed to provide a knowledge management backbone for creating a comprehensive tool to support human factors evaluations. HFE-AT will include a knowledge warehouse and an associated infrastructure, and will include guidelines and standards to support human factors evaluations. We envision that this framework could provide a foundation for a variety of other applications at NASA. Once the appropriate documentation has been identified, HFE-AT could be extended to support other NASA-relevant domains such as aerospace applications and maintenance and reliability assessments. For example, HFE-AT could be used to identify the appropriate human factors analyses and support human factors evaluations of NextGen flight deck interface design concepts or air traffic management concepts.
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