human factors

noun, plural in form but singular in construction

|Updated on: 29 Jul 2018

Definition of human factors

: ergonomics 1

Recent Examples of human factors from the Web

There are non-human factors influencing the amount of CO2 that the sensors would be detecting.

— cathleen o'grady, Ars Technica, "In Salt Lake City, suburban sprawl is bad news for climate change," 12 Mar. 2018
The report states the ignition source of the fire remains undetermined, but that no human factors contributed to the ignition.

— cameron knight, Cincinnati.com, "Delhi double fatal fire: Flames were already out when son found parents, no smoke detectors," 7 May 2018
Andrew's mother Elia Chepaitis originally designed the font in 1987 while working on a degree in human factors engineering and design.

— maya wei-haas, Smithsonian, "Could This New Tactile Font Help People Who Lose Their Sight Late In Life?," 1 May 2018
There’s been plenty of attention on the scientific and engineering aspects of a mission to Mars, but what about the human factors?

— bob dohr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Oak Creek-Franklin-St. Francis-Cudahy-South Milwaukee: Miss St. Francis, Mars and nine-pin bowling," 5 Feb. 2018
But the odds strike me as very high that the user interface was simply implemented by a Web programmer, rather than being designed by a human factors specialist.

— steve bellovin, Ars Technica, "Here’s how to make sure Hawaii’s missile warning fiasco isn’t repeated," 21 Jan. 2018
That threat includes human factors like maintaining control over voter data.

— sean gallagher, Ars Technica, "Hacking the vote: Threats keep changing, but election IT sadly stays the same," 7 Nov. 2017
Killer storms like Irma and Maria have been blamed on global warming, a trend likely accelerated, if not caused, by human factors.

— james romm, WSJ, "Review: Rome’s Cosmic Retribution," 27 Oct. 2017
There are certainly human factors to be figured out.

— caleb jones, USA TODAY, "Psychology experiment kept six NASA subjects isolated on a Mars-like volcano for 8 months," 15 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'human factors.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.