DESIGN FLAWS: FLAWS BY DESIGN?

In this paper, we discuss the influence of design flaws on design and the influence of design on design flaws. By defining design flaws as a design-related product property that leads to reduced product quality, it can be argued that a design flaw is always the result of a design failure – the failure to create product quality. By exemplarily applying a problem solving model to design that is the result of research into human failure in complex, dynamic and intransparent situations (while, of course, acknowledging that there is a lot more of research into human behaviour in design), we identify possible causes of design failure.