RETHINKING HUMAN FACTORS IN DESIGN FROM DESIGN ENTROPY PERSPECTIVE
DS 136: Proceedings of the Asia Design and Innovation Conference (ADIC) 2024
Year: 2024
Editor: Yong Se Kim; Yutaka Nomaguchi; Chun-Hsien Chen; Xiangyang Xin; Linna Hu; Meng Wang
Author: Dong, Liang; Xia, Ziqing; Yu, Xiaoqing; Chen, Chun-Hsien; Lye, Sun Woh
Series: Other endorsed
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Page(s): 038-045
Abstract
As humanity advances into the era of artificial intelligence, both human factors and design disciplines encounter new challenges. The capacity to collect, process, and understand information has become critical, with informatics emerging as a significant driving force in these fields. Against this backdrop, this article reexamines the role of human factors in design through the fundamental concept of entropy from information theory. Specifically, it introduces a concept framework of design entropy and, through an information-centric perspective, reconstructs the evaluation criteria for design processes and solutions while defining associated entropy measures: design process entropy, design behavior entropy, and design structure entropy. Drawing from this framework, the paper explores how the guidelines and predictive models derived from human factors research influence design, particularly affecting the complexity of information collection and conversion during the design process, as well as the usability and adaptability of solutions. The paper further demonstrates the application of human factors in design through two case studies, involving producing guidelines for online English learning tool design and predictive models of air traffic controllers' workload, followed by a discussion of future research directions based on the proposed framework.
Keywords: Design Entropy, Human Factors, Design Informatics