USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Railroads

Road

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) HSI Guidelines and Resources

Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems, 2nd Ed, provides human factors principles and guidelines for use by highway designers, traffic engineers, and other highway safety practitioners to support operational...

Air

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) HSI Guidelines and Resources

Human Factors Considerations in the Design and Evaluation of Flight Deck Displays and Controls, Version 1, sponsored by the FAA Human Factors Division, is intended to be a single source reference for Human...

Rail

Federal agencies in the transportation sector offer HSI principles and guidelines related to issues of attention and distraction.  These guidelines can provide directions for design of new tools and technology in the rail industry that support operator attention and minimize distraction...

Examples of Well-Designed Process & Technologies

Effective design supports operator attention demands

Effective design matches product features with user needs. Attentional demands on operators require products that make important information easy to locate and recognize. Recent cab designs have  integrated multiple electronic...

User Centered Design

What is user-centered design?

 

User-centered design is a process to design tools that take user needs and requirements into account. It  includes steps to identify these needs and requirements through interviews and/or observations of the target user. Some key parts...

HSI Topic: Training

Training is another HSI domain that intersects with Human Factors Engineering and Safety.

Training is any activity that results in enabling users, operators, maintainers, leaders and support personnel, to acquire, gain or enhance knowledge, skills, and concurrently develops their...

HSI Topic: Safety

One HSI domain that intersects with Human Factors Engineering is Safety.

Safety factors consist of those system design characteristics that serve to minimize the potential for mishaps causing death or injury to operators, maintainers and supporters or threaten the survival and/or...

Human Factors Engineering

One domain of HSI that offers considerable potential to assist railroads in understanding and applying knowledge related to human performance is Human Factors Engineering (HFE). 

“Human Factors Engineering (HFE) is the discipline of applying what is known about human...

Human Systems Integration

What is HSI? And why does it matter to the rail industry? 

The rail industry is evolving rapidly. Among the changes facing the industry is the introduction of new technology in the locomotive cab, such as Positive Train Control (PTC), intended to increase safety and minimize...