UK: Professor Brian Shackel, 1927 - 2007, ergonomist who was a leading figure in the development of human-computer interaction
25th Century Quaker
Loughborough ergonomist who was a leading figure in the development of
human-computer interaction
Published: 27 June 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2714123.ece
Brian Shackel, ergonomist: born London 9 January 1927; Head,
Ergonomics Laboratory, EMI Electronics 1954-69; Professor of
Industrial Ergonomics, Loughborough University 1969-92 (Emeritus),
Director, Human Sciences and Advanced Technology Research Institute
1970-92, Head of the Department of Human Sciences 1972-82; married
1949 Penni Webb (two sons, one daughter); died Leicester 9 May 2007.
In the early 1960s computers were mysterious machines that occupied
air-conditioned rooms; only specialists interacted with them and they
did so by punching holes in cards. In 1962, Brian Shackel, Head of the
Ergonomics Laboratory at EMI Electronics, completed his first study of
human-computer interaction by redesigning the console of the Emidec
2400, an early example of a general purpose, all-transistor digital
computer. Over the next 40 years he became a leading figure in the
development of human-computer interaction - the founding father of a
discipline that has made these complex machines accessible and usable
by all.
Born in Kidbrooke, south London, in 1927, Brian Shackel took a BA
degree in Classics at Clare College, Cambridge and after service in
the Royal Navy as an Instruction Lieutenant returned to Cambridge to
take an MA degree in Psychology. He then began his long career in
ergonomics by joining the Medical Research Council's Applied
Psychology Unit in Cambridge.
In 1954 he started the Ergonomics Laboratory at EMI Electronics. The
first such research centre within a British company, it was set up to
help with product design - for military equipment, record players,
hair dryers - and to work on problems involving factory working
conditions, noise and light. It was here that Shackel first became
involved with computers, redesigning the console of the Emidec 2400
among other projects. Whilst running the laboratory Shackel developed
a passionate belief that scientific knowledge about people at work
needed to be applied in the development of products and systems if
these artefacts were to be useful, usable and safe, and this became a
life-long mission.
By 1970 remote, on-line terminals were appearing and enabling a wider
range of people to interact with computers. Rendering these terminals
useful and usable was to be a major design challenge. Shackel moved in
1970 to Loughborough University as Professor of Industrial Ergonomics
and established the Husat (Human Sciences and Advanced Technology)
Research Institute.
For the next three decades Husat was at the centre of human
considerations in the development of human-computer interaction. It
became one of the largest human-factors centres in Europe and many of
the leading figures in the field today were associated with the
institute as staff or students or in collaborative projects.
The range of human issues in which Shackel took an interest was
immense. He was struck by the way in which the Qwerty keyboard had
become the de facto standard as the input device for the computer,
despite the availability of alternative designs, such as the
alphabetical keyboard or the split keyboard. Husat studied the range
of "health scares" about the use of the computer, including eye
fatigue and pregnancy complications to the current preoccupation with
repetitive strain injury.
Shackel was also interested in the issues of using digital technology
in different application domains - from early studies of the dangers
of using mobile phones and satellite navigation in cars to the
establishment of a major trial of electronic journals for the British
Library.
But Shackel's interest was not limited to research for its own sake
and Husat became an important centre for development of user-centred
design, in which the potential user of a product remains at the centre
of the design team's attention throughout the design process. He
fought for and won a leading place for human factors in the Alvey
Programme, the Government's initiative in the 1980s to stimulate the
IT industry in the UK. He also ensured that Husat became a leading
player when the EU's European Strategic Programme on Research in
Information Technology, or Esprit, recognised that human issues had to
be addressed in the development of information technology.
Brian Shackel was always courteous and well-mannered, but with a
steely determination to get his own way. He possessed enormous energy,
great tenacity and a capacity for arguing his case with very close
attention to detail; he won many an argument by outlasting his
opponents. Within a few years of arriving in Loughborough he was head
of what is now the Department of Human Sciences and, in a 10-year
tenure, oversaw its growth to include undergraduate programmes in
Ergonomics, Human Biology and Psychology in addition to the
well-established MSc in Ergonomics.
He also became the Dean of the School of Human and Environmental
Studies. He was convinced all engineers needed to understand human
factors and personally led a campaign to teach the subject across the
campus.
Shackel reckoned that in the 1970s he knew everybody in the world who
was working on user-centred design, and he took great delight in
celebrating everybody's achievements. But it was too small a community
to have much impact on a burgeoning computer industry. By the end of
the 1980s the international disciplines of usability engineering and
usability evaluation were well established and are now normal
practices in design laboratories in computer companies throughout the
world.
Shackel played a big part in this transformation by putting his
considerable energies into the creation of institutions that could
support an international movement. He created, within IFIP (the
International Federation of Information Processing), the Technical
Committee No 13 in Human-Computer Interaction, which he chaired for
many years. Under the auspices of IFIP, in 1984, he launched the
"Interact" series of international conferences on human-computer
interaction. He also helped launch the journal Applied Ergonomics in
the 1969 and was its first editor.
He remained very active after his retirement in 1992, keeping up a
voluminous correspondence with colleagues around the world and
continuing to play cricket.
Ken Eason
--
seek electricity