The top 20 research and development spenders in the U.S. spend an estimated $142 billion each year, yet 40-45% of that money and immense amounts of resources (e.g., material, energy, human capital) are invested in user-centric products that never make it to the market and end up as pollutants, scrap, or waste (Christie et al., 2012).

Vulnerabilities that are embedded in the system, in the form of design deficiencies and poor human factors, lead to breakdowns and increases in the number of physical injuries, work absence, environmental disasters, and hazards, which lead to significant financial, reputational and organizational losses (Norman, 2013)

....sustainability, health, security, and the joy of living are under a stringent threat (National Academy of Engineering, 2017). 

44,000 to 98,000 preventable deaths occur annually due to medical errors in U.S. hospitals (Corrigan et al., 2000).

Modern products are plagued with design flaws that lead to product recalls, errors, obsolescence, safety risks, and market failures (Pahl, 2007).

Workplace accidents and injuries cost over $150 billion per year (National Safety Council, 2021).

Lack of human factors engineering competency is widely acknowledged as contributing to the abovementioned problems—harming people and overstretching the planet's resources—leading to the deterioration of well-being (Dul et al., 2012).