The Safety Paradox

Safety and ergonomics are both Human Factors. Either can play an important role in the success of a design or task. They can work synergistically to enhance each other and they can hamper each other. They can do both at the same time.

Safety is an important thing. A safe design makes you more comfortable using that design. Increasing the user’s comfort is basic ergonomics.

An ergonomically designed safety feature makes you more comfortable using that safety feature. Therefore you are more likely to use the safety feature. And the more you use a safety feature the safer the item is.

However, safety almost always adds more steps into any given task. Thereby decreasing efficiency and lowering the ergonomic quality.

After performing a task analysis, ergonomics may also call for the omission of certain steps or features that may inadvertently be safety related.

So ergonomics can enhance safety, safety can improve ergonomics, and both safety and ergonomics can hurt each other all at the same time. I guess that is why I call it the Safety Paradox.