Apt reflections from Don Norman about error.
While he could believe that 1 to 5% of accidents may primarily result from human error, a claim of 75-95% is implausible.
If the percentage is so high, then “clearly other factors must be involved. When something happens this frequently, there must be another underlying factor”.
Norman remarks that this is primarily a “design problem”.
He points out how a bridge collapse leads to learning about how it collapsed, and a reformulation of design rules.
But, “when an accident is thought to be caused by people, we blame them and then continue to do things just as we have always done”.
Source: Norman, D. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things.
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