What a venue (main picture thanks to Danny Hope –http://dannyhope.co.uk), what an event! This month’s UX event in the Hotel du Vin here in Brighton was a pearler! Tim Minor was kind enough to invite Dr Eddy Elton, Cathy Grundy and myself to give a series of talks surrounding the use of Human Factors in Product Design. Eddy gave a great comparison between UX and HF, and how HF has been used to develop  successful products. Cathy presented some of her recent research into using interaction principles to help understand how perception mechanisms can be used to develop usable artefacts. I on the other hand, discussed some current challenges with 3D printing, and gave an overview of the present state of bicycle design from a human factors perspective. The event went down a treat, with a full house under a glamorous chandelier made of wine glasses – and some lovely beer in the bar afterwards. It’s always great to present in these kinds of events, where you get to meet a range of people from varied backgrounds who are all enthusiastic. The conversations moved from human factors and the overlaps with UX, to spacial awareness and the links between creative thinking, sketching, physics, psychology. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening (for me anyway), and it was great to see so many of our own students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) there too. Many thanks to Tim and Danny and all the UX crew for such a professional, stimulating evening. For a full breakdown of the event, and with videos of the talks coming soon, visit: http://lanyrd.com/2014/ux-human-factors-and-ergonomics/. There’s also the upcoming UX conference in Brighton, and student tickets are only £50! http://lanyrd.com/2014/uxbri/ 

Photo: Danny Hope (http://dannyhope.co.uk)