A design's tolerance for mistakes, making errors easy to recover from rather than costly or permanent. Forgiving interfaces let you undo, confirm before harm, and rarely punish a slip.
Synonyms
- fault tolerance
Related terms
In plain words
- how easy it is to fix a mistake
- an app that doesn't punish you for slipping up
Usage example
Auto-saved drafts made the editor forgiving, so a closed tab never lost work.
Don't confuse with…
- error preventionForgiveness softens the fallout after a mistake; error prevention tries to stop the mistake from happening at all.
Categories
- Usability principles