If you can find an OLD book about carpentry, every tradesman had to learn that there were specific design limits for stairs.

Depending on the height that has to be ascended and the horizontal travel allowable, there are strict formulas about the vertical spacing between each tread, the depth of each tread, the overlap of the front lip of each tread over the back of the one below it, and the horizontal distance between the front lips of succeeding treads.

These relationships are all ancient knowledge, and related to the anatomy of how the legs (of an average person of average height) move when climbing stairs. Breach these relationships, and the steps are disorienting to use.

A friend had her old rotting wooden steps torn out and replaced by some random lumpings of bricks by some 'handymen' (well they had all these bricks lying around, you see, so it would be cheaper than buying real replacement stairs!), and she has enormous difficulty getting up the 2 ft 6 inches height now.....