Integrating safety into the design of consumer products

Safety is never, or only very rarely, the first design criterion. So how do you integrate a safety filter into the design process? No designer would have the idea or the desire to design a dangerous product. And yet, experience and history show that some designers manage to do just that! Let's recall the tragic story of the first public toilets in the early 1980s. These public toilets were automatically cleaned and disinfected after the user had left. The designers had incorporated a presence detection device sensitive to a mass of over 20 kg. A lighter child died as a result! Good intentions are not enough. In fact, designers spontaneously tend to imagine themselves in the user's shoes: they know exactly how their product works, and how to use it "well". So they can't imagine other users who see the product with other needs, other expectations, other experiences, other habits, and who are unaware of the risks and how to use it.

We propose a systematic approach that broadens the designer's scope and enables potential risks to be identified and assessed.