Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

056 Error, Human

An action, or omission of action, that leads to an unintended result.

It is said that “to err is human, to forgive design”. But forgiveness cannot be designed into systems without an understanding of the hows and whys people make errors and the corresponding design strategies that can be applied to reduce their frequency and severity.1

There are three basic types of human errors: 2

1. Slips — Occur when a simple action is not what was intended, for example, when a person intends to press one button but accidentally presses another. Slips are sometimes referred to as errors of action or errors of execution. For example, a slip occurs when a person dials a frequently dialed phone number when intending to dial a different number. ...