Easy but Ineffective Approaches

One simple solution for engineers is to simply use human factors checklists. While many such checklists exist, they often do not distinguish among the qualities they enhance, which may not be related to safety and may even conflict with safety. The only way such universal guidelines could be useful is if all design qualities were complementary and achieved in exactly the same way, which is not the case. Qualities are conflicting and require design tradeoffs and decisions about priorities. 

Usability and safety, in particular, are often conflicting an interface that is easy to use may not necessarily be safe. As an example, a common guideline is to ensure that a user must enter data only once and that the computer can access that data if 

The second easy but not very effective solution is to write procedures for human operators to follow and then assume the engineering job is done. Enforcing the following of procedures is unlikely, however, to lead to a high level of safety. 

Just as engineers have the responsibility to understand the hazards in the physical systems they are designing and to control and mitigate them, engineers also must understand how their system designs can lead to human error and how they can design to reduce errors. 

Designing to prevent human error requires some basic understanding about the role humans play in systems and about human error. 

---