Human Error? No, Bad Design The vast majority of industrial accidents are caused by humans. This seems unrealistic, because there's no way there should be that many incompetent workers. It would be much more believable if only a tiny fraction of accidents were caused by actual human error. There's a better explanation: bad design.



Designers typically understand things like the strength of steel or conductivity of an electrical component; they usually understand less about the way that humans behave.



Understanding Why There Is Error The most common reason for error is when designers expect humans to act in unnatural ways. These include assumptions about the user's coordination, memory skills, and ability to focus.

Another problem is the way that we treat errors in general. Our first instinct is often to punish the person who made the error. But if the error was caused by bad design, the root cause will remain untreated.

Root Cause Analysis In this case, we're looking…