About Us
Building the world's Experience Capital
In 1981, Dr. Eric Schaffer founded Human Factors International around a simple idea: technology should work for people. At a time when usability was barely recognized as a discipline, HFI pioneered structured usability methods and helped establish usability engineering as a professional practice.
Over four decades, our work has evolved with the world—from usability and UX to behavioral science, customer experience, digital transformation, and AI. Today, we are taking that legacy forward.
We believe an organization's ability to create meaningful, trusted, and effective experiences is a form of capital, one that can be built, strengthened, and compounded over time.
We call it Experience Capital.
Our Legacy
Shaping Experience Design,
decade by decade.
We have evolved with every wave of technology and every shift in experience design. From pioneering usability to advancing human-centered design, we are now bringing the same people-first principles into the age of AI.
01
1980s
The Usability Era
Technology enters the workplace. The human side of technology remains largely overlooked.
HFI's role
We pioneered structured usability, helping establish usability engineering as a discipline.
02
1990s
The Web Revolution
Digital interfaces explode. The web transforms how people interact with technology.
HFI's role
We brought human-centered thinking to the digital world.
03
2000s
The Experience Economy
Experience becomes a competitive differentiator, and UX moves beyond usability.
HFI's role
We launched CUATM and expanded into customer experience, behavioral science and persuasive design.
04
2010s
Experience at Scale
Organizations begin building experience teams, systems and capabilities.
HFI's role
We advanced experience across persuasion, emotion, trust and transformation.
05
2020s
Human-Centered AI
AI enters products, services and organizations. Trust and human outcomes become increasingly important.
HFI's role
We bring human-centered thinking into AI, combining human understanding, design and intelligent technologies.
06
Today
Experience Capital
Experience becomes an organizational capability and competitive advantage.
HFI's role
We are advancing Experience Architecture and helping organizations build the World's Experience Capital.
OUR IMPACT
Trusted at scale, for over 40 years.
HFI's legacy is carried forward through the organizations and professionals it continues to serve — from Fortune 500 enterprises to governments, universities, and emerging digital businesses.
40+
Years of experience-design leadership
50+
Countries reached across our network
12,000+
Certified professionals worldwide
100,000+
Individuals trained globally
Our Approach
The discipline that differentiates:
Experience Architecture
Experience is not designed. It is architected.
It emerges from the intersection of people, behavior, business, technology, and AI, intentionally shaping how people think, feel, understand, decide, and act — through the discipline of Experience Architecture.
By bringing together design, research, behavioral science, strategy, transformation, and AI, we align human needs with business outcomes and technological opportunity.
The result is Experience Capital.
Our Expertise
Building the Experience Architects
The future of experience needs professionals who can connect human understanding, business, design, technology and AI.
Through certifications, specialized learning and executive education, we develop Experience Architects who can lead experience-driven transformation. We also work with organizations to build experience capability at scale.
Our Belief
The future is always people centric.
Technology will change and AI will evolve, but people will remain at the center. The organizations that thrive will be those that deeply understand people and intentionally engineer what people experienceTM. For decades, we have helped organizations do exactly that, turning human insight into lasting advantage and building the World's Experience CapitalTM.
Build your Experience Capability
For Professionals
Build Your Expertise
Develop the skills and credibility to lead the future of experience.
For Organizations
Build Organizational Capability
Develop the people, practices and capabilities required to create better experiences at scale.