{ "_description": "Generated from data/ — edit the sources, not this file. The agent access guide explains the evidence boundary of every field.", "schemaVersion": "1.0.0", "kind": "entry", "locale": "en", "id": "interlock", "name": { "zh": "互锁", "en": "Interlock" }, "page": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/interlock/", "self": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/interlock.json", "alternates": { "zh-CN": "https://designvocabulary.com/zh/entries/interlock.json", "en": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/interlock.json" }, "site": { "catalogSchemaVersion": "0.1.0", "entries": 137, "index": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/entries/index.json", "query": "https://designvocabulary.com/api/query?lang=en", "guide": "https://designvocabulary.com/en/agents/", "llms": "https://designvocabulary.com/llms.txt" }, "provenance": { "sourceBacked": [ "entry.definition" ], "editorial": [ "entry.boundary", "entry.signature", "entry.when", "entry.when_not", "entry.tradeoff", "entry.comparison", "entry.rules", "entry.relations", "entry.implementationNote", "entry.principle" ], "scope": "Definitions reference these sources. Digital specimens, selection advice, relationships, and recipes are editorial work and have not been validated through user research.", "editorialStatus": "drafted", "specimenData": "fictional", "specimenNote": "Original fictional specimens. Definitions cite sources; usage advice and recipes are editorial.", "sources": [ { "id": "interlock-wikipedia", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlock", "title": "Wikipedia · Interlock (engineering)", "checkedAt": "2026-09-16", "archive": { "status": "pending", "confirmed": false, "url": null, "capturedAt": null, "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260916*/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlock" } }, { "id": "interlock-pokayoke", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke", "title": "Wikipedia · Poka-yoke", "checkedAt": "2026-09-16", "archive": { "status": "unconfirmed", "confirmed": false, "url": null, "capturedAt": null, "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260916*/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke" } } ], "lists": [], "ordered": false, "listDisclaimer": "Seat numbers are editorial positions, not scores, rankings, or popularity measurements. A list that is not filled is left as it is." }, "entry": { "id": "interlock", "type": "principle", "name": { "zh": "互锁", "en": "Interlock" }, "aliases": [ "Interlocking", "Sequence Lock", "联锁", "顺序锁定" ], "granularity": "component", "intents": [ "prevent-error", "confirm-action" ], "tags": [ "error prevention", "sequence", "precondition", "safety", "constraint" ], "definition": "A hard constraint: an operation simply cannot run until the necessary conditions are met. It does not remind the user to mind the order — it makes the wrong order structurally impossible.", "boundary": "The test for an interlock is that the thing cannot be done, not that it is discouraged. A confirmation dialog, a warning, or a greyed-out button that still responds are not interlocks, because the wrong order can still happen. It also differs from error prevention in general: prevention covers hints, validation, undo, and everything else that reduces slips, while an interlock is the hardest of those and the most expensive. Because it takes away the user’s room to judge an exceptional case, it belongs only where the consequence is severe and irreversible; applied to ordinary operations it turns every normal use into an obstacle course.", "signature": [ "While the condition is unmet the operation is unavailable and cannot be bypassed", "The system says which condition is missing rather than only that it is unavailable", "Once the condition is met the constraint lifts by itself, with no extra step" ], "when": [ "The wrong order causes irreversible loss — of data, or of money", "The operation affects people other than the operator and cannot be put right afterwards", "The precondition can be judged objectively rather than needing human weighing" ], "when_not": [ "The consequence is mild or reversible and the interlock only adds friction", "Judging the precondition can itself be wrong and the user has no way to appeal or override", "What it locks is a commercial goal rather than safety, such as refusing to let someone leave before they fill in enough" ], "tradeoff": "An interlock eliminates a whole class of ordering errors outright, at the cost of eliminating exceptions with them: when the system misjudges the precondition, the user has no way forward and must go outside the system for help.", "comparison": { "focus": "Making the wrong order of operations impossible", "mechanism": "The operation cannot run until the condition is met, with no bypass", "cost": "It removes the room for human judgement in exceptional cases too" }, "sources": [ { "id": "interlock-wikipedia", "title": "Wikipedia · Interlock (engineering)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlock", "claim": "The article explains that an interlock is a feature or device commonly used in engineering and safety systems to keep machines, devices, and processes from operating until the guards are in place or the required circumstances are met, and that interlocks are used to prevent or reduce the chances of injury to the operator, damage to the equipment, and actions being completed in the wrong order or in an unsafe way. This entry takes its definition and its focus on sequence from it.", "checkedAt": "2026-09-16", "archive": { "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260916*/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlock", "status": "pending", "checkedAt": "2026-09-22T11:56:27.812Z", "error": "status-request-failed", "jobId": "spn2-ceefb5ca25267935a17e08479ce3ba2e805b506f" } }, { "id": "interlock-pokayoke", "title": "Wikipedia · Poka-yoke", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke", "claim": "The article defines poka-yoke as any mechanism in a process that helps an operator avoid mistakes and defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur, and records that the concept is also sometimes referred to as a forcing function or a behavior-shaping constraint. This entry uses it to place the interlock as the hardest member of that family; restricting it to severe consequences is editorial judgement.", "checkedAt": "2026-09-16", "archive": { "lookupUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260916*/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke", "status": "unconfirmed", "checkedAt": "2026-09-16T17:38:41.161Z", "error": "status-request-failed", "jobId": "spn2-6a3ff4d457a1759d36865144e6ba8d17b7c7a5e4" } } ], "relations": [ { "target": "error-prevention", "kind": "realized_by", "condition": "One class of slip must be eliminated rather than merely reduced", "reason": "Error prevention covers hints, validation, and undo among others, and the interlock is the hardest of them: it does not lower the probability, it removes the possibility.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "human-approval", "kind": "alternative", "condition": "An action needs an extra gate before it runs", "reason": "An interlock is gated by an objective condition and human approval by a person; use the first where the condition is decidable and the second where judgement is needed.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "user-control", "kind": "conflicts_when", "condition": "An interlock is applied to an ordinary operation whose consequence is not severe", "reason": "It takes away the user’s room to judge, a cost worth paying only when the consequence is irreversible.", "basis": "editorial" }, { "target": "obstruction", "kind": "conflicts_when", "condition": "What is locked is leaving — cancelling, closing an account, unsubscribing", "reason": "Locking the exit in the name of safety is an obstacle on the way out and has nothing to do with an interlock’s legitimate use.", "basis": "editorial" } ], "rules": [ { "when": "An operation is unavailable because a condition is unmet", "instruction": "Say which condition is missing and how to meet it, instead of only greying the control out.", "strength": "must", "basis": "editorial" }, { "when": "The system’s judgement of the precondition can be wrong", "instruction": "Provide a path to appeal or override with a person involved, and record who overrode it and when.", "strength": "must", "basis": "editorial" } ], "principle": { "evidenceType": "A hard-constraint concept from engineering safety practice, grouped in interaction design with the error-prevention family", "limit": "This entry does not judge whether any particular operation is severe enough to deserve an interlock and offers no error-rate data; the trade-off belongs to the product and turns on how reversible the consequence is." }, "demo": null, "version": "0.1.0", "editorialStatus": "drafted", "requirements": [], "demoCapabilities": [], "implementationNote": "This entry has no runnable specimen; the illustration is an editorial sketch of the unmet and met states, not a verified implementation. Before shipping, confirm the consequence really is irreversible and prepare a path to appeal when the judgement is wrong.", "image": { "src": "/images/interlock.webp", "alt": "A side-by-side sketch: on the left a fictional panel whose green action button is pinned under a terracotta bar, grey placeholder text bars to its right, and a row of condition indicators above it with some filled and some still empty; on the right the same panel with every indicator ticked, the bar gone, and the button live in terracotta." }, "searchTerms": [ "防错", "顺序", "前置条件", "安全", "约束" ] } }