Improving amusement ride safety and inspection with human factors

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Through my research, I aim to improve the effective and safe performance of people interacting directly with common technology, such as amusement rides and conventional industrial technologies. My next short term objectives relate to improving hands-on interfaces through the application of Human Factors (HF). First we will modify resource materials used by ride inspectors to make more use of the sense of touch. We expect this will improve inspectors' ability to learn from and apply these resources, and we will test this experimentally using simulations. Secondly, we will adapt and apply HF interface-design principles to ride controls to improve speed and accuracy of operation, and we will obtain results experimentally using simulation and also collect and analyse subjective measures including mental workload. We will also observationally study riders' behaviour in relation to ride design features and potential sources of error, and model these relationships qualitatively. We will then translate these findings into principles that inspectors may use to evaluate these ride interfaces. As part of this research, we will continue to develop investigation and analysis tools that will increase HF information obtained from accidents.