I think a problem with designing specialized equipment (such as lab equipment) in such a way that it is "obvious" to people without specialized knowledge is tha

I think a problem with designing specialized equipment (such as lab equipment) in such a way that it is "obvious" to people without specialized knowledge is that it becomes annoying to use for power users, i.e. the lab workers who do have the specialized knowledge. Think of the command line. It would drive me crazy if it didn't exist, because I'm a power user. But it's not a good interface for a novice, it fails several design guidelines, starting with lack of discoverability. Lab equipment is even worse, since you -- a non-scientist -- are not even supposed to be touching it to begin with. I do think that equipment with the potential to cause catastrophic failure (such as a nuclear reactor) should be designed in such a way that the critical error state cannot be entered easily. A silly human mistake shouldn't cause a reactor meltdown. (Do note modern nuclear reactors tend to "fail safe", so this is definitely a consideration!)