Factor of safety is about preparing for unknown flaws in a design, even though the issue may never arise. In the interest of preventing system failure, a designer can make more safety elements than are necessary. In general, it is the act of adding more elements than are strictly necessary in a design to prepare for situations that may or may not happen. In graphic design, you might add restatements of an idea to make more sure of the delivery of the message. In structural design, you might add more beams to the underlying structure. In urban design, more roads and parking, and so on.
I decided to illustrate the most common expression of the factor of safety that I can think of: “belt and suspenders”. In other words, you might say “belt and suspenders” in response to someone bringing a USB key with their materials to a presentation even though the materials available online. In the event that Internet access is down (e.g. the belt breaks) you’d still be able to present via USB (e.g. suspenders).
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