As I have said countless times, we ALL make errors. This means in situations where those errors carry more severe consequences, such as industrial workplaces, then as safety engineers, it is our role to help the business DESIGN SAFE work tasks. In HF engineering, we have eight (8) system design principles:
- Accurate mental models
- Managing information
- Reducing complexity
- Visibility
- Constraining behavior
- Design for errors
- Standardization
- User-centered design
A good work process should not allow people to make mistakes easily. This may sound obvious, but all too commonly, system design is carried out without feedback from its potential users, which increases the chance that the users will not be able to interact correctly with the work tasks. Following HF engineering design principles can minimize the potential for these human errors.