Working with the human element: Human Factors and technical innovation from EfficienSea and on to ACCSEAS

The e-Navigation initiative of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has sparked off several new projects working on new technological innovations for the benefit of marine safety. The IMO also acknowledges the necessity to work with the human element in both ends of the development process: innovation needs to be user-driven, and the result needs to be thoroughly tested in a user-centered design process to mitigate unexpected consequences. In the just started ACCSEAS project we expect to work on problems of maritime safety. We expect to produce several suggestions to solutions to these problems. It is vital that we work with the stakeholders, both onboard and ashore, in this project. In this paper some examples of work with the human element in previous projects are presented. These are methods that we hope can inspire other development projects to do similar work. 1