Defensive design

This article is about design to prevent misuse. For the design of public places to prevent crime and other undesired actions, see Hostile architecture.

Defensive design is the practice of planning for contingencies in the design stage of a project or undertaking. Essentially, it is the practice of anticipating all possible ways that an end-user could misuse a device, and designing the device so as to make such misuse impossible, or to minimize the negative consequences. For example, if it is important that a plug is inserted into a socket in a particular orientation, the socket and plug should be designed so that it is physically impossible to insert the plug incorrectly.

Defensive design in software engineering is called defensive programming. Murphy's law is a well-known statement of the need for defensive design, and also of its ultimate limitations.

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