As FailBlog loves to point out, there are a lot of people out there who can be called...insensible.

Operator failure is something product designers can't do much about; failure at the design and manufacturing level is another story. In an article titled "Eight Ways to Boost Product Reliability," Design News points out how important it is for creators to understand product failure:

...Design engineers have to know failure modes. They have to conjure up potential ways for users to abuse their products. They have to imagine ways for assemblers to misassemble their parts.

"You hear people say, 'This must be a Friday car,'" notes Jake Fisher, senior automotive engineer for Consumer Reports. "Well, if you design it right, it shouldn't matter what day it's built on. You have to design it so it can only go together one way."

Here, we've collected recommendations from engineers who study reliability on a daily basis....

With bullet points like

- Don't be too anxious to redesign good products, - Never assume anything is obvious, - Concentrate on perfect systems, not perfect components, - Don't pack more functionality into one button just because you can,

and more, the article collects time-tested strategies for minimizing product failure and is directed at engineers, though designers should certainly take note.

Article aside, it is a shame that, no matter how well-designed a product is, you'll never be able to stop people from doing this: