Human Factors in Living Lab Research

Abstract

Human factors research is still in its infancy in healthcare and other fields. Yet it has the potential to allow organisations and living labs to assess and improve innovation quality, while closely involving potential end users. “Human factors” involve a scientific focus on the interaction between individuals and systems with the goal of improving safety, performance, and user acceptability. Studies simulating challenging real-life circumstances in selected samples and using a multi-method approach can provide important insights for organisations and governments and allow for better and safer services for the end user. By combining existing theory and case examples, the current paper aims to situate human factors research and to help researchers determine when and how this methodology could be applied.