Page updated June 12, 2009

 50th Annual Human Factors Short Course (2009)

Course Description:

The University of Michigan's Human Factors Short Course is offered by the University of Michigan's Center for Professional Development, but is coordinated in part by UMTRI staff. This two-week continuing education course concerns the design of systems, products, and services to make them easier, safer, and more effective for human use. It emphasizes principles and concepts, and profiles examples of applications.

Human Factors Concepts (Week 1) is a broad survey of human factors topics important to designers and researchers. Human Computer Interaction (Week 2) presents an overview of major topics and issues in human-computer interaction. It includes mini-workshops and seminars on selected principles, methods, and procedures that provide the foundation for the design of effective human-computer systems. Most students register to attend both weeks, but you can register for a single week only.

Course Dates:

Monday July 27th to Friday August 7th, 2009

Course Location:

The annual Human Factors Short Course is held in the Chrysler Building on the University of Michigan's Engineering Campus (North Campus), in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann Arbor is approximately a 35 minute drive from Detroit Metro Airport and there is a roundtrip shuttle service from the airport to the various hotels in town for a fee of about $30. More detailed travel information can be found under the Transportation link in the menu to the left.

Who Should Attend:

Human factors professionals and those relatively new to the field who should attend this course. They should also be interested in a broad overview of topics in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction.

Course Benefits:

• Get the "big picture" about the human factors and human computer interaction fields. What the major topics for design, evaluation and research are. What the major recommendations for common design problems are.
• Learn about methods, techniques, theories, and data derived for human factors professionals that can be applied to system, human interface, and product design.
• Gain small group, hands-on experience in designing a product with human factors considerations. Learn how to measure human anthropometry, estimate task completion times, and use methods from human-computer interaction such as thinking-aloud and heuristic evaluations.
• Acquire extensive lists of references and contacts for additional information (1-6 pages of books, journal articles, and web sites for each of the lectures plus additional lists for seminar topics). Acquire information on the strengths and weaknesses of various software packages to solve human factors problems.
• Learn about special topics of interest to you (student-selected) in
  seminars (16 options) and workshops (several options at 2 times). Example seminar topics have included task analysis, speech interface design, advanced displays, and politics of usability.

Course Registration:

Course registration is handled through the University of Michigan's Center for Professional Development. The current costs are as follows:

1 week: 2,800 USD (for 5-1/2 days of instruction)
2 weeks: 4,800 USD (for 10 days of instruction)

To register, go to "http://cpd.engin.umich.edu". Under "Professional Education", click "Human Factors Engineering".

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