Human factors for ship design; exploring the bottom rung

This paper is a part of an ongoing study, which will amalgamate maritime Human Factors (HF) and Human-Centred Design (HCD) knowledge into the Naval Architecture syllabus, and study the effects of this change through action research as a promising way to provide a fresh view to the industry from the bottom up. The first cohort to initiate this study consists of final year Naval Architecture students at the Australian Maritime College (AMC). The findings from a classroom questionnaire and an onboard survey that carried out on the training vessel, Bluefin, ~ analysed and the students' perspective on including HF/HCD into their syllabus and the key areas which need to be addressed in a follow up lecture series are presented.