Watch
Error tolerance 0:29
A 29-second explainer of Error tolerance, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Error tolerance demo
What this video covers
Error tolerance means designing systems so that when users make mistakes - and they will - the fallout is minimal and reversible, not disastrous. Features like autosave, undo, drafts, confirmation prompts for destructive actions, and flexible inputs all acknowledge that human error is inevitable and build the system to handle it gently rather than harshly.
In the unforgiving version one slip wiped your work for good; in the tolerant one the same slip was a shrug - undo, or it was autosaved anyway. Same human error, wildly different cost. That's error tolerance: you can't stop people making mistakes, but you can design so mistakes barely matter. Recoverable beats irreversible almost every time.
