Alphonse Chapanis (March 17, 1917 – October 4, 2002) was an American pioneer in the field ofindustrial design, and is widely considered one of the fathers ofergonomics or human factors – the science of ensuring thatdesign takes account of human characteristics.[1]
Chapanis received a PhD inPsychology fromYale University in 1943.[2]
He was notably active in improvingaviation safety around the time ofWorld War II, although his career covered a wide range of domains and applications.
One of his major contributions wasshape coding in the aircraftcockpit. After a series of runway crashes of theBoeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Chapanis found that certain cockpit controls were confused with each other, due partly to their proximity and similarity of shape. Particularly, the controls forflaps andlanding gear were confused, the consequences of which could be severe. Chapanis proposed attaching a wheel to the end of the landing gear control and a triangle to the end of the flaps control, to enable them to be easily distinguished by touch alone. Thereafter for that aircraft there were no further instances of the landing gear being mistakenly raised while the aircraft was still on the ground.[3] This particular shape-coding of the landing gear lever is still regulated for use in civil aircraft.[4]
In 1949 he published the first textbook on the subject ofergonomics,Applied Experimental Psychology: Human Factors in Engineering Design.[5]
In the 1950s, Chapanis worked withBell Labs on the design ofpush-button telephone handsets, conducting experiments that led to the present layout of the keys.[6]
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