http://blog.bfccomputing.com/articles/tag/interface en-us 40 My God, It's Full of Source! <p>Poka-Yoke (poe-ka yo-ka) is the Japanese concept of &#8220;mistake proofing&#8221;. Originialy, Baka-yoke (&#8220;idiot-proofing&#8221;), the name was changed to be more, um, descriptive.</p> <p>The classic example is the shift-interlock in a car that prevents the operator from removing they key when the car isn&#8217;t in Park.</p> <p>John Grout has a <a href="http://pokayoke.wikispaces.com/">wiki</a> with all kinds of examples of Poka-Yoke design, including the shape of manhole covers. In fact, Nashua&#8217;s manhole covers are the subject of an article that goes into <a href="http://www.drainspotting.com/mirror/nhtelegraph-2003-11-26/">more detail on the geometry of manhole covers than you thought you were going to read today when you woke up this morning</a>.</p> <p>Certainly in computers we could do with some more Poka-Yoke in our design. Let me posit the notion that for every time the developer blames the user, he didn&#8217;t build in enough Poka-Yoke into the system.</p> Fri, 18 May 2007 14:32:00 -0400 urn:uuid:4c01bf37-963f-45e2-ac13-b96e9c93c6a8 Bill McGonigle http://blog.bfccomputing.com/articles/2007/05/18/poka-yoke Development General HCI user interface design http://blog.bfccomputing.com/articles/trackback/4652