• How people sense and perceive the world around them
• The capabilities and limitations of human memory
• The impact of colors, shapes, and patterns
• Various learning styles
• Approaches and obstacles to solving problems and making decisions

The course also describes how these factors impact the information-architecture and design tasks of technical communicators.

The course is designed so you will learn to think critically about your audience of users and how design should reflect key cognitive processes, including:

• Understand the importance of human factors to information and product design
• List the primary human factors that affect information and product design
• Describe how each factor might suggest or constrain a design
• Evaluate interactive products and describe defects in terms of human-factors violations

The course project provides an opportunity for you to learn key stakeholder communication skills critical to building credibility, content leadership skills; and defending design decisions or presenting a business case for funding.