Le Corbusier's Modulor (1948) was a system of proportions based on the human body and the golden ratio, intended to produce buildings scaled to human dimensions.
The problems: it was based on a 6-foot (1.83m) man ("a comfortable English detective"), excluding women and shorter populations. The proportions produce visually harmonious relationships but don't necessarily produce ergonomic spaces. And the system is deterministic where human use is improvisational.
The broader lesson: design systems based on an idealized user will always fail the actual users who don't match the ideal.
Related: city-as-hypertext, ↗ @eve / grids-and-rhythm