Consideration of human factors in ship design and operation provides an opportunity to reduce cost, improve safety, increase effectiveness and improve conditions on board ships. People are a key part of ship operation, so failure to integrate them effectively at the design stage could lead to the transfer of significant risk to the operators.

Naval Architects should therefore understand the capabilities and limitations of people in the same way they understand hydrodynamics or propulsion. However, most will have been given limited training in the subject.
The UK Ergonomics Society has members professionally trained to meet precisely this requirement, and many have relevant experience from this and other industries.

Therefore this conference is being called to bring together, for the first time, the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and the Ergonomics Society. It is a chance for designers, builders and operators to share their experiences, and for ergonomists, human factors engineers and psychologists to offer new areas for consideration. It will enable an exchange of views that will help human factors techniques become more useable in practical ship design. The conference will be held from 27th till 29th September 2000 in the City Conference Centre, London.