Tolerance

What is tolerance? Dictionary.com says that tolerance is "a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own(Tolerance)." But I also hear about my husband figuring out the tolerance of an object in Mechanical Engineering. Tolerance is not a word that is limited to people only. We can apply it to all sorts of things.  When I think of tolerance I think of how long I can stand something before I go crazy. But in design that is not necessarily the case. 

"But people - and all biological systems - do not need this high high-precision."

-Dontald Norman 

Tolerance is basically the the ability of a person or object to withstand something that is putting friction against it. Whether that is a sound, or a person when dealing with people or a task when dealing with technology or gravity in mechanical engineering. In design we have to design things that are extremely tolerant of errors. When a user does something wrong out design cannot stop working or break down. It has to be able to let the user know that it wasn't the right option and to try again. Donal Norman said that "Technological systems have to be designed with high precision: they do not have much tolerance for mismatches in specifications. But people - and all biological systems - do not need this high high-precision. They adjust themselves naturally to the environment, producing highly robust, reliable, fault-tolerant operation(Norman)."



Citations:

"Tolerance." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.


 Norman, Donald. "Compliance and Tolerance." jnd.org. N.p., n.d Web.