The aesthetic and the ethic dimensions of human factors and design

This article discusses the relationship between aesthetics, ethics, and the traditional research issues in human factors, and argues that it is important and beneficial both to the human society and to the human factors profession that we incorporate the aesthetic and the ethic dimensions explicitly and consciously in human factors research and practice. These two dimensions can help us put the current human factors research in a larger context. We can see more clearly the limitations of current research and the needs and challenges for research in new areas. The two dimensions also offer some new perspectives from which we can examine the current work systems and products, explain the demise of old work systems and products, and predict the possible emergence of new work systems and products.