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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

#71

Post by pc86 »

whatever_dude wrote: post #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…

As a government contractor who did not work on this, I can say I'd bet a lot of money that this is how this screen came about. Initially launched 2-10 years ago with 1-2 links, fast forward a bit and we have this.

I can hear a forward thinking developer saying "hey should we at least have colored buttons or something on this screen so it's easy to see what is a test and what is not?" and the product owner/business owner/PM saying "no man just add a link it's faster."

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

#72

Post by koolba »

ghaff wrote: post #33
joshstrange wrote: post #25

The thing that annoys me most about this situation is people complaining about how long it took to send out the "Sorry, there was no missile" message. Just as I expected these were hard-coded messages that were sent out by a button (link) click and not a free-form text area. There are many (good) reasons you want your program set up this way (let's ignore the rest of the terrible UI/UX for now). It makes complete sen…

>maybe have to type a confirmation string Having to type out YES or some phrase is a fairly common "Are you really sure you want to do this??" sort of thing. I gather they're also looking at requiring a second person's confirmation which, if practical and very unlikely to make it impossible to send any message, seems reasonable as well.

In a situation like this having to type the full text of the message as a confirmation would work.

Any reasonable person typing in “This is not a drill...” would pause half way through. It’s not the same as blindly clicking “Yes”.

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

#73

Post by alkonaut »

whatever_dude wrote: post #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…

Incremental design doesn’t excuse the guy adding thing #2 or thing #3 not paying attention to the whole. Nor does being a contractor excuse it. You don’t get a contract job to add some links to a page. You are contracted to modify it (regardless of what the buyer said he wanted) - and you are responsible for not making it dangerous. Even if that means you can’t take the job.

Someone reviewed the spec for this. Someone modified the page of links. Someone reviewed that modification. Someone signed off on the change.

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

#74

Post by ryandvm »

I'm looking forward to news stories about the Great Hawaiian Baby Boom in a few months...

But seriously, as an occasional government contractor, this does not surprise me at all. This is par for the course on government software projects. Nobody gets fired for adding just one more menu item. Besides, good luck pushing a complete redesign through in a reasonable amount of time/money. With the bloated teams and processes they use, that would take years. Sadly, this is probably the "new" version anyway.

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

#75

Post by MBCook »

code_duck wrote: post #40

The WaPo reports it was from an interface with a drop-down menu. “Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life mis…

I imagine that was a misunderstanding based on initial information. This was tweeted by the official department in Hawaii.

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

#76

Post by duckwheat »

ceejayoz wrote: post #26
joshstrange wrote: post #25

The thing that annoys me most about this situation is people complaining about how long it took to send out the "Sorry, there was no missile" message. Just as I expected these were hard-coded messages that were sent out by a button (link) click and not a free-form text area. There are many (good) reasons you want your program set up this way (let's ignore the rest of the terrible UI/UX for now). It makes complete sen…

It'd be nice to have a nice big divider between "live" and "test" messages, and different colors for the two. Small tweaks would go a long way here.

Agreed - there really is no excuse, development-wise, for the UI being this poorly designed. 30 minutes of easy work could take this to a point where it would be unlikely somebody would make a mistake.

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

#77

Post by [deleted] »

ryandvm wrote: post #74

I'm looking forward to news stories about the Great Hawaiian Baby Boom in a few months... But seriously, as an occasional government contractor, this does not surprise me at all. This is par for the course on government software projects. Nobody gets fired for adding just one more menu item. Besides, good luck pushing a complete redesign through in a reasonable amount of time/money. With the bloated teams and process…

[deleted]

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

#78

Post by goatlover »

jcranmer wrote: post #34
PKop wrote: post #5

Probably the worst UX design (considering the context and the stakes) I've ever seen. How could multiple people accept this as the interface? Put it on a separate page! Have an explicit confirmation dialog, or 3 of them. At the very least maybe it's own section with some padding... Ridiculous.

An ICBM will land about 30 minutes after it launches. At those kinds of timescales, every delay you put in somebody's path to issue the warning, even a few seconds, is going to be a cost measured in lives. How many people are you willing to kill to reduce the risk of a false alarm?

You think a few seconds is going to make a difference in lives with a nuclear strike? Will people be able to run to the nearest bomb shelter in that time?
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