Beyond Compliance: Designing Safety Standards for Human-Centered Innovation

Description

This book shows how core design values (e.g., comfort, usability, inclusivity, and responsiveness) can be embedded into safety standards to improve performance, innovation, and user experience. Using the Australian horse racing industry as a case study, it introduces the Dependency-Based User Experience (D-UX) framework, revealing how both primary users, like jockeys, and co-dependent users, such as medical staff and safety officers, shape the effectiveness of protective design. The D-UX framework is versatile and can be adapted across industries where multiple users rely on the same product design, ensuring safety and usability for all.

Bridging design research, technology, and policy, the book examines how existing safety standards can enable or constrain innovation. It proposes conceptual redesigns and offers evidence-based recommendations for reforming standard-making processes to reflect real-world user interdependencies. Grounded in original doctoral research and enriched by contemporary scholarship, this book provides a roadmap for creating safety systems that are robust, ethical, and truly human-centered.