Proceedings of the
35th European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL2025) and
the 33rd Society for Risk Analysis Europe Conference (SRA-E 2025)
15 – 19 June 2025, Stavanger, Norway

A Proposal for an Effective Fault Tree Diagram Layout

Anh Tuan Nguyen1,a, Chris Vermaas1,b and Mariëlle Stoelinga2

1Engineering Technology, University of Twente, The Netherlands.

2EEMCS, University of Twente, The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT

Fault Trees (FTs) have proven particularly successful in engineering disciplines to identify and quantify risks for assessment. Due to the only short descriptions, FTs are mainly a visual language and transcends national and language boundaries. To further reduce the risk of misunderstandings with FTs, we have tightened the layout guidelines and adjusted the FT elements accordingly. During our research, we kept the three aspects of efficiency, applicability, and functionality in mind, allowing FTs to communicate as correctly, quickly, and easily as possible to make our societies even safer.

Keywords: Fault tree diagrams, Digital fault tree, Risk management, Media, Graphic design, Gestalt psychology.


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