Research into accidents as a design tool

Product liability legislation presses to gain more insight into the occurrence of accidents with consumer products, to the benefit of both producers and consumers. In this paper research is presented that was carried out in order to provide this insight. The research consisted of recording the reconstruction of accidents by the victims. The design relevance of the comprehensive data was assessed by a panel of industrial designers. The results are discussed in view of the development of a method that is actually applicable by industrial designers, in order to anticipate possible ways of use that might result in accidents. It is argued that the availability and the application of such a method would not only contribute to the prevention of accidents, but might also positively affect the marketing position of a product.