Building usability
A building design must meet the functional requirements of the staff or public who work and move within it. A building that does not address the user’s functional requirements may create operational issues for employees and be frustrating and counterintuitive for public users. A well designed building will be both aesthetically pleasing and designed around users.
The built environment covers all buildings, but where human factors plays a significant role is where there are large volumes of people / customers, for example: environments such as airports, shopping centres, rail stations, hospitals, transport interchanges, public buildings and stadia. Aspects such as room sizing and adjacency are paramount in ensuring that the building is easy to navigate, promotes efficient working and minimises distances between associated areas. A significant aspect in building usability is with regard to control rooms and other important operational areas.
Our human factors support tends to start with gaining a detailed understanding of the user population, their characteristics and requirements. For example, the group make-up, encumbrance, cognitive and physical abilities, nationality, mood, stress levels and goals. This understanding of the user profile is then utilised to assess and influence the design.