This chapter outlines some general aspects of the design process and human factors standards, and discusses their implications for design in transport. Most descriptions of the design process and of problem solving and planning include the following elements: (1) problem definitions; (2) the conceptual design stage; (3) the concrete design stage; (4) preliminary evaluations; (5) implementations and evaluations of the system in action. Standards to be used in the design process can be classified into: (1) product standards; (2) performance standards; (3) design standards. As technologies have become more complex, their demands on human intelligence have become more critical, so that human factors can no longer be ignored during the design process. The most obvious way to reduce common design errors is to consider human factors at all stages of the design process. Human factors performance standards should be set up for any system that is to be designed. Unfortunately, these design principles have not yet been successfully applied to transport, where there are many examples of bad design. Very great human and financial benefits can follow the consideration of human factors during the design of advanced technology, for example in personal computers. For transport systems, there is the additional advantage that many lives could be saved. The chapter finally discusses the more complex and challenging design problem of improving technology to increase safety as well as efficiency.
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