Human Memory and Product Design
By Seda Japp, Ph.D. We humans tend to think that there are many factors that differentiate us from computers. While doing that, we focus on things that make us unique, things humans can do but computers cannot for now. But, from a human factors perspective, focusing on the strengths of computers and weaknesses of humans might give interesting insights as well. If we know what makes computers unique, we might leverage those aspects in product design to minimize use errors. What do computers really do better than us? One major difference between the human brain and computers is the way they store information. Computers use electronic circuits that store information digitally. The human brain, on the other hand, stores information on nerve cells using complex biological coding mechanisms ( 1) . One major consequence of this digital vs. biologic way of storing information is that computer memory is more literal and less prone to corruption whereas human memory is a reconstruction an
