Meet Carolyn
Carolyn Hartzell
Principal Human Factors Engineer
Carolyn leads end-to-end project management at LHF, which includes defining HF strategies, developing task analyses and URRAs, conducting user research studies, and authoring FDA submissions. Carolyn is always seeking opportunities to improve systems and works closely with cross-functional teams. She loves to preemptively mitigate hazardous situations and suboptimal user experiences by identifying practical solutions that address underlying issues and meet clients' strategic goals.
Carolyn has a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and has worked as a systems engineer for General Dynamics Electric Boat. She also has a M.S. degree in Engineering Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she researched cognition-driving visual search errors. Since then, she has held in-house Human Factors Engineering roles at Beckman Coulter and Zoll Medical, before transitioning to consulting.
Outside of work, Carolyn enjoys hiking and adventuring with her family, traveling, and kicking back with a good book.
Areas of Expertise
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User research design
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Study moderation
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Systems thinking
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Expert and heuristic reviews
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URRA strategic development
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Data analysis and analytical writing
“The idea that a person is at fault when something goes wrong is deeply entrenched in society…But in my experience, human error is usually a result of poor design: it should be called system error. Humans err continually; it is an intrinsic part of our nature. System design should take this into account”
~ Don Norman, "The Design of Everday Things"
Publications & Presentations
Toward Never Doing Known Use Problem Analysis Again
Hartzell, C. and Gade, P. (2025)
Poster Presentation at the 14th Annual International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare
Bringing Usability Studies to Rate Participant Populations
Omar, S. and Hartzell, C. (2025)
Poster Presentation at the 14th Annual International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare
Using Artificial Intelligence to Optimize Known Use Problem Analyses
Hartzell, C. and Gade P. (2024)
Poster Presentation at the 13th Annual International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare
User Mishandling: Design for Users and Use Environment
Hartzell, C. (2021)
Presentation to the Virtual Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare
Improving the U.S. Adult Immunization Schedule by Applying Usability Principles
Chen, DW., Schaeffer, L., Preusse, K., Gable, T., Hartzell, C., McGlynn, S., Yoo, A., Gipson, C. (2018)
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
Expectations influence visual search performance
Hartzell, C and Thomas, R.P. (2017)
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting