It's on the vintage forum because coincidentally, the POI in this subject was ALSO the inventor of the drying sensor.
And it has a very interesting view of one thing I never thought (and It was disturbing to me when i realized that.)
Exactly as described in the article. For decades I've designed appliances to be safe, to protect the user from a possible accident and, given the relation Elux had with an autoparts company (Chris) in Brazil, I worked in the same building where cars were tested and in one occasion i was designated to design a safety belt buckle and a steering wheel that is now used by VW in Brazil. (Gol, Voyage, Fox and Polo).
Every time I design a product, I strongly keep in my mind: "If I fail, the user can be injured or die. I need to make sure it won't fail and once the designed product or element reaches the market, there's no way back, so I have to do it right the first time, test prototypes, nitpick, look for any possible mistakes (even the tiniest), add error margins to be on the safe side."
In order to make a safe product, we need to understand how it works for causing injuries or even killing. I never though about using on of my designs or even using my knowledge to intentionally design something to kill, but reading the article i had a shocking discovery: OMG, I know how to make it. Just basically need use my prevention design backwards and make the design object do exactly what I always wanted to avoid. It was scary when I realized something that was right in front of my eyes all the time and I have never thought about it.
It may have been horrible for that designer to design something thinking "If I fail, the user won't die". but..... we're designers, we're engineers, we're architects and we're doctors. Luckily, most of the professionals in this industries will never have to deal with "designing an artifact to kill", but it can happen. Yesterday night was the first time I thought about that... OMG of course, an electric chair or a gas chamber also needed an engineer or an industrial designer to be designed and a good design has to perform its function successfully. They are killing machines, they must kill in order to work perfectly. How I could be so naive and never think about that?
I don't know, however, if I would be able to sleep again knowing that I intentionally designed something to kill. I personally would refuse a project like that, even resign, if needed.
In my resume I have 3 deaths caused my misuse (a woman electrocuted in a washing machine (she was using a damaged extension cord and stepped on it with bare feet, a child that was severely injured by a spin dryer that exploded due to improper load and later died and a man that murdered his stepson spinning him in a front load washer (he intentionally entered the diagnose mode to run the spin test). The three cases weren't "My fault", the products didn't fail, they were abused much beyond common sense limits. But even those cases made me feel miserable and spend months thinking what I could've done different to prevent that. This is a weight that I'll carry on my shoulders for the rest of my life. Designing a machine to kill, like an electric chair? nah, thanks... not for me. Even now knowing that I have the knowledge to do that. Reading the article I even made sketch in my mind in 2 seconds.
And... well.... now every time we use our vintage dryers and see that "more dry, less dry" on the dial we know it was designed by the same person that designed electric chairs. It's a fact. it's related to clothes dryers that are over 20 years old. so I believe the person that posted it posted in the right place.
getpocket.com
