Improving Product Safety and Effectiveness in the Home

Abstract

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that accidents rated as the fifth leading cause of death in 2002. A large proportion of these accidents occur in and around the home. For 2003, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimated that just under 11 million injuries were caused by children's nursery equipment; toys; sports and recreational equipment; home communication and entertainment; household containers; yard and garden equipment; home workshop equipment; home maintenance; general household appliances; heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment; home furnishings and fixtures; and home structures and construction materials. Even those products that are safe to use may not be designed to allow the user to be maximally effective when using those products. This chapter describes a framework that can provide a foundation for understanding the components that play a role in making products safe and effective, a process that can be used by designers to ensure a consideration of the components of the framework, and a discussion of the extent to which consumers select products based on these features. Difficulties in conducting research in this area are identified, as well as some directions for future work.