Even if firearms are tools, they're not ordinary ones. And the lack of standardization in their design often leads to unintended injury and even the death of their users. A special issue of Ergonomics in Design, "Human factors issues in firearms design and training," looked at how "the human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) community can contribute to the production of safe and effective future firearms." One of the papers introduces us to the new world of Hedonomics, which states that "once individual user's safety and functionality needs are satisfied, pleasure should be considered in the design of products, systems, tools and environments."
Before entering the world of Hedonomics, here are some of the problems identified by this special report about firearm safety.
- Knowledge of how to use one type of firearm doesn't mean a person is going to be competent using other types.
- Even if there is a manual safety -- and sometimes there isn't -- a red spot may indicate that the safety is engaged, but sometimes it means exactly the opposite.
- Safety training does not address the matter of firearms use under high stress, when the operator may be affected physically, perceptually, and emotionally.
Here is a link to the list of articles available in this special issue of Ergonomics in Design.
But one of the most interesting papers is co-authored by Peter Hancock, whose current experimental work concerns the evaluation of behavioral response to high-stress conditions. You'll find more information about his projects at the MIT2 Website, Minds in Technology: Machines in Thought.
For more information about this research, you should read "Hedonomics: The Power of Positive and Pleasurable Ergonomics" (PDF format, 7 pages, 5.28 MB).
Here is a diagram showing the frontiers between hedonomics and ergonomics (Credit: MIT's Minds in Technology/Ergonomics in Design).
But what exactly means "hedonomics"?
We define hedonomics as that branch of science and design devoted to the promotion of pleasurable human-technology interaction. In advocating for hedonomics, we seek to augment and expand ergonomists' arsenal for improving the design of all human-machine technology.
And here are some more explanations.
In contrast to the prevention of pain, but much in the same realm of human-technology interaction, hedonomics is primarily concerned with the promotion of pleasure. Hedonomics and human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) are consequently two sides of the same coin.
As you can guess, hedonomics is still in a very early stage. However the researchers say that "designing for pleasure should be an explicit goal from the initiation of each project." They also think that they need to establish a valid and reliable "measure of pleasure."
Who can disagree?
Sources: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society news release, via EurekAlert!, March 6, 2006; and various web sites
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