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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

#111

Post by jacobush »

jandrese wrote: post #89
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…

Rule of thumb with tech reporting is that the reporters always get the details wrong. Nothing shatters the illusion like watching a story where you know the actual facts of the case and seeing just how much they get wrong.

Rule of thumb with reporting

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

#112

Post by giarc »

jim_dow_jones wrote: post #106
giarc wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>intentionally No one intentionally set off these alarms.

You are correct. There is no current reporting that claims these were set off intentionally. However, I'm curious if there could be a valid motive for both states to purposely set off these false alarms. It does seem like a pretty big coincidence that both states happen to get these false alarms in relatively short time frame. I have already seen conspiracy posts making claims about these alarms being purposely set o…

I don't want to get into conspiracy type stuff, but I was saying to colleagues yesterday that the bright side of all this is that I imagine there are a lot of Hawaiians building their emergency survival kits right now.

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

#113

Post by zimpenfish »

pc86 wrote: post #71
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 ow…

> a forward thinking developer saying "hey should we at least have colored buttons

Accessibility becomes an issue for colourblind people then.

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

#114

Post by sjs382 »

https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-opposite-of-fitts-law/

  In the cockpit of every jet fighter is a brightly painted
  lever that, when pulled, fires a small rocket engine
  underneath the pilot's seat, blowing the pilot, still in
  his seat, out of the aircraft to parachute safely to
  earth. Ejector seat levers can only be used once, and
  their consequences are significant and irreversible.

  Applications must have ejector seat levers so that users
  can "occasionally" move persistent objects in the
  interface, or dramatically (sometimes irreversibly)
  alter the function or behavior of the application. The
  one thing that must never happen is accidental
  deployment of the ejector seat.

  The interface design must assure that a user can never
  inadvertently fire the ejector seat when all he wants to
  do is make some minor adjustment to the program.

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

#116

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

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…

I feel like it was absolutely a money issue. In my experience it's a matter of going "well, we'd like to redesign the screen for $x, but we could throw another link on there for a quarter of $x", and the user will always go with the cheaper option. You can't just say "No, we need to go with the more expensive option" because that makes the client unhappy, and we don't want that, and if you only go with the more expensive, the client will suggest the second themselves. And once the precedent is set with a second link, you're out of luck when you try to redesign for link #3. It's a no win.

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

#118

Post by mannykannot »

uptown wrote: post #37

"Days after Hawaii alert gaffe, Japan issues false alarm about a missile launch" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-japan...

I have a hunch that in both cases, the procedures have recently been changed.

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

#119

Post by seanalltogether »

jacobush wrote: post #91
alkonaut wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Someon…

So many assumptions... first, inject twice as many levels. Then make the output text go through a system which makes it impossible to add any formatting. Add a legacy system and some procurement. Mix well. Oh and the person signing off likely never actually sees the output.

Right, and the developer who was at the bottom of the chain might want to clean up the page a bit, but the person above him can't sign off on something like that, nor the person above him. Approval for any modifications has to come from the woman who wrote the business spec that was contracted by your boss's boss's boss and her company has allocated her to another project right now and won't be able to shift hours to handle your request until March.

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

#120

Post by softawre »

cube00 wrote: post #100
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…

Good thing NPM was up so they could get a new build out with the all clear message.

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