Question 1:

When designing any panels or objects that will be in interaction with humans, humans
factors have to be considered in order to eliminate the maximum of error in usage. For a long
time engineers have been improving their designs to suit and respond to humans needs and
factors. When designing controls that will be used by humans, one must consider humans
behavior towards his design. In-flight seating controls is an example of a design that will be used
by humans. In order to improve the design, the design should be criticize from a humans factors
perspective, possible issues with the correct use of the controls and possible design
improvement.
From a humans factors perspective the in-flight seat controls have some issues in their
design, the design of controls is usually standardized this is often based upon researches and best
practice. However in the in-flight seat control the buttons layout is wrong as it is positioned at
the very bottom and many wouldnt be able to access it. In addition, the display design is very
poor, the buttons are very small and the symbols indicating their functionality are not visible as
well as the symbol on the call button can lead to misunderstanding due to the symbol associated
to it.
Considering the design is implemented into the chair arm on board of the aircraft and the
user interface didnt change, some issues can occur while the user is correctly using the controls,
one of them is the user might click many times on the call button as he might not hear or
understand that the signal was received by the flight attendant which might bother other
passengers with the sound that it creates. Another possible scenario would be as shown by figure
B while the user it attaching his headset to the arm of the chair , he might by mistake touch any
of the buttons as they are close to each other.
In order to improve the design, the buttons should be bigger an visible, a light feature
should be added to inform the user that the button was successfully pressed and that his request
was received, also the symbols have to be bigger and visible so that any user with sight disability
can perfectly distinguished them. The Button placement should be at the bottom of the chairs
arm but at the top so that the passengers leg doesnt become an obstacle for him to use the
buttons. And the distance between the buttons should be increased so that any button conflict
would be avoided.
Question 2:
On January 28 1986 a disaster happened, the space shuttle The Challenger exploded after 2
minutes of its launch. That disaster caused the death of all the 7 astronauts on board. From an
engineering point of view, if ethical thinking were considered then the disaster would have been
prevented. Respecting the engineering ethical thinking would result into the respecting the social
contract.
The failure of the O ring system is the main reason for the disaster, in a previous flight,
1985, a failure regarding the main O ring has been found, the O ring has lost its ceiling due to
low temperature, based on that engineers have developed and ordered new O rings made with

different materials in order to prevent such accident. However due to lack of time, engineers
knew that the O rings are not safe and that the flight is not safe, a failure in communicating the
facts created a factual issue, also a design issue occurred as the O rings did not pass extreme
weather condition tests before being implemented as there was a lack of time, these cases
demonstrated that the ethical thinking process was not respected. Also the lack of understanding
the issue came in place as during the conference call with the management team and the
engineering team, the management team did not seem to understand that a failure in the O rings
system would result into fatalities and the engineers also did stand against the launch and
refusing that the launch would take place as the life of 7 astronauts have a very big chance of
being lost they issued a recommendation that the launch shouldnt happen, instead of
recommending they should of used another world in order to express the severity of the problem.
Therefore the engineers as well as the management team neglected their professional
responsibility and social contract as they did not consider the fact that a disaster could happen
and people could die.
NASA shouldnt have launch the space shuttle as the engineers were unsure whether the system
was safe or wasnt.