About this quote

Design problems usually come down to one thing: people will find clever ways to break what you built. That doesn’t mean your work is hopeless — it means you need to test for real failure paths and make the damage small when they happen. Watch actual users, not your ideal user model, and fix the parts that get abused most. Ask yourself how this will behave when someone is tired, distracted, or in a hurry.

When to use it

• During the app usability session: "We watched three users skip the safety step — plan for that and add a clear recovery, not just a warning."
• At the smart-home install: "Don't rely on the manual; design the wiring so a wrong hookup can't ruin the unit."
• In hospital training for a new form: "Expect fields to be missed during a night shift — make the critical ones impossible to bypass."
• On the finance team reviewing transfers: "People will paste the wrong account when they're rushed — add a simple verification to catch it."