Abstract
To make effective contributions to design, human factors practitioners need ways to influence the thinking and behavior of people with very different priorities from their own. Practical insights and techniques developed in the course of work with many development teams are presented here. They are based upon three principles: facilitating empathy, making information visible, and providing inspiration. Techniques for creating empathy are emphasized and include character development, scenario-building, and role-playing. The creation of visual material includes use of graphical ways of presenting information, photography, video, model-making and sketching as data gathering and presentation tools. Throughout, suggestions are made for communicating human factors information in ways that are inspirational rather than restrictive to designers.
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