error-prevention-recovery

name	error-prevention-recovery
description	Use when designing workflows, forms, or interactions that reduce mistakes and make recovery easier for users with cognitive disabilities, stress, or inattention.

Error Prevention & Recovery

Use this skill when reviewing tasks where mistakes are common or costly. Focus on helping users avoid errors, understand what went wrong, and recover without losing progress or confidence.

Identify Risk Points

• Look for ambiguous labels, hidden constraints, and irreversible actions
• Check where users must remember rules, sequence, or formatting from earlier steps
• Flag unclear validation, late error messages, or confusing correction flows
• Consider attention lapses, stress, dyslexia, and executive function challenges

Improve Recovery

• Prevent errors with clear examples, defaults, and inline guidance
• Validate early where possible and explain problems in simple language
• Preserve user input and provide easy ways to retry, undo, or confirm
• Distinguish destructive actions and ask for confirmation only when helpful

Output

• Highlight likely error traps and their impact
• Recommend changes that reduce mistakes and support recovery
• Prioritize fixes for high-consequence and high-frequency workflows