Human factors, as we know it today, got its inspiration from these basic ideas about human error. It then showed something different: an alternative way of looking at human error. As a result, there are basically two ways of looking at human error today. We can see human error as a cause of failure, or we can see human error as a symptom of failure. These two views have recently been contrasted as the old view of human error versus the new view – fundamentally irreconcilable perspectives on the human contribution to system success and failure.
In the old view of human error:
