Fundamentally, humans are error prone. I just came across the "e-counting game" where you ask a class to count the number of letter "e"s in a 400 word document and offer $20 to the first person who shouts out the correct number. The author mentions that if you're ok missing 10-25% of the "e"s, you're fine. But most times we try to have people inspect things we really want the missed number to be a lot closer to zero.
There are many ways people try to reduce the error rate. Standards (righty tighty, lefty loosey) can help some. So can visual instructions (A giant "Pull" sign on a door). But the best tools focus on how the user actually interacts with whatever it is. The Toyota Production System has "Poka-yoke" which asks you to design something that cannot be put together wrong (think of the children's shape sorter boxes). An example of good visual implications is that newer stoves often have the knobs in the same arrangement as the burners themselves.
In short, there are some tasks humans are naturally bad at. And so if you find yourself paying for something online and the website asks you to enter your account number twice, you really should actually type it out each time.
In short, there are some tasks humans are naturally bad at. And so if you find yourself paying for something online and the website asks you to enter your account number twice, you really should actually type it out each time.
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