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The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

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Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#11
post #9

Yikes. Now consider this: this is the design for the missile warning system. It is possible, even likely, that some missile launch system has similar catastrophic UI. How we've not wiped ourselves off by accident so far is a miracle.

I take it you've read Command and Control [1]? A great, if worrying read on exactly that subject. It's luck, not judgement that something really terrible hasn't happened yet.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_and_Control_(book)

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#13
I bet it works in ie6.

Is this design horrible? yes. Is this out of the ordinary? Absolutely not. This is very common UX for systems designed 5+ years ago and there are still systems designed today that look like this.

This is an alert system, now picture your surgeon or air traffic control using something like this...

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#14
In the defence of those that made the UX, this is version 1. Or prototype. Or something they paid a ten year old with candies to make...

Or they don't get it and they are hopeless.

No, they do get it. The DRILL link is one row away from non-DRILL link to avoid incorrect dispatching. In the mean time you can ponder if you need to announce a tsunami.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#15

Holy hell... I was expecting some old ncurses mainframe design with shitty interface, but if it's just an href... seems like it'd be trivial to hack and cause havoc

I really, really hope there’s no JS on that page. Because if there is, given the poor design, it’s probably vulnerable to XSRF.

Gives a whole new meaning to critical vulnerabilities. Sheesh.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#16
post #9

Yikes. Now consider this: this is the design for the missile warning system. It is possible, even likely, that some missile launch system has similar catastrophic UI. How we've not wiped ourselves off by accident so far is a miracle.

another interesting read regarding this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#19
It's easy to see how this is bad, and I bet dozens of designers are now creating alternatives for their dribble and Twitter appreciation, but the problem is probably what led to this, not this specifically. I can see it: a contractor started with a link that triggers a push notification, then someone requested another link, then another, then it grew from there, never having the ability to stop and rethink this from a design standpoint since it would require more work, more training, more money.

The problem is not knowing (or having someone who knows) how to design something better, it's treating good design as a priority. It rarely happens.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#20

Holy hell... I was expecting some old ncurses mainframe design with shitty interface, but if it's just an href... seems like it'd be trivial to hack and cause havoc

I really, really hope there’s no JS on that page. Because if there is, given the poor design, it’s probably vulnerable to XSRF. Gives a whole new meaning to critical vulnerabilities. Sheesh.

XSRF has nothing to do with JavaScript.

A site is vulnerable to XSRF if it doesn't use tokens when performing critical operations, critical operations are (usually) performed using HTTP POST, which can be done via form submission... token generation and validation is done server side...

You can perform a successful XSRF attack in a browser with javascript completely disabled.

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