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It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

washingtonpost.com

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Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#41

Post by jpindar »

igitur wrote: post #4

The article is confusing. It states that the "errant employee actually was working with a drop-down menu on a computer program". But the photo is clearly of a list of normal "a href" elements. I'm asking, because if it was truly a drop-down (select element) then the UX would be even worse. At least with a list of links, there is the odd chance that the person would spot the correct choice. Using drop-downs, once the…

I saw (on Twitter) another image that was a dropdown with choices such as "Missile Alert" and "Test Missile Alert" right next to each other.

I don't know which image is real.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#42

Post by mannykannot »

getpost wrote: post #36
bovermyer wrote: post #7

> Ige, in his speech, deplored the fact that employees of the emergency management agency were getting death threats since the events of Saturday. Sounds like they need to prosecute some people for terroristic threats to the fullest extent of the law. I understand being pissed off about the false alarm, but sending death threats should be an automatic jail sentence at minimum.

The state sent out a death threat! People are just letting the government know how they feel. The design of this system is grossly negligent, which IS a management problem. It does look like a web page. How is the page served? An internal secure setup on a private network? Is the browser ever updated? Is there javascript? The number of failure modes on this type of setup is unconstrained. How are updates tested? It a…

A warning, whether mistaken or not, is not a death threat, and a death threat is not just a complaint.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#43

Post by macspoofing »

nolo wrote: post #16

Taking the opposite side side of the argument, good UX only matters for inexperienced employees. People that mindlessly click are going to mindlessly click "yes" on the confirmation dialog

>good UX only matters for inexperienced employees

No. People are people. They will make mistakes - even smart and experienced individuals.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#44

Post by jpindar »

derekp7 wrote: post #30
datpuz wrote: post #11

The UX in most software made for the government is terrible. At the end of the day, I think anyone clicking any button in that list should have been well aware of what those buttons do especially since clicking that button was a routine part of the shift change process in that shop. Bad UX, sure. But that person dun goofed.

Often times a web page will have buttons that dance around the screen, if the page is still loading elements. That can cause misclicks too.

I hates that so much, especially on mobile sites which load so slowly that a miss click takes ages to recover from.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#45

Post by Shank »

jpindar wrote: post #41
igitur wrote: post #4

The article is confusing. It states that the "errant employee actually was working with a drop-down menu on a computer program". But the photo is clearly of a list of normal "a href" elements. I'm asking, because if it was truly a drop-down (select element) then the UX would be even worse. At least with a list of links, there is the odd chance that the person would spot the correct choice. Using drop-downs, once the…

I saw (on Twitter) another image that was a dropdown with choices such as "Missile Alert" and "Test Missile Alert" right next to each other. I don't know which image is real.

The one in the article is sourced as from HIEMA.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#46

Post by Shank »

eitland wrote: post #26
Ajedi32 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue for a menu like this: https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272 Combined with a confirmation dialog like this: https://twitter.com/Ajedi32/status/953303114995597312

Very much agree with the redesign of the page. Simple, much better. The confirmation box however might be dangerous: If employee panics they might easily fail to get that right resulting in a failure to warn in time.

> If employee panics they might easily fail to get that right resulting in a failure to warn in time.

It's not like the box goes away. You have plenty of time to fix your typing. Not only that, but bad UI is a bad UI problem. Not being able to operate a system correctly under stress is a problem often solved with a combination of tactics, including UI, but also stress management, response, etc.

People who operate ballistic missile systems, defense systems, etc. on a daily basis are pretty well versed with how to handle the situation from a stress level. Anyone sitting behind an Iron Dome console is probably pretty cool under high stress in this exact situation.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#47

Post by bena »

igitur wrote: post #4

The article is confusing. It states that the "errant employee actually was working with a drop-down menu on a computer program". But the photo is clearly of a list of normal "a href" elements. I'm asking, because if it was truly a drop-down (select element) then the UX would be even worse. At least with a list of links, there is the odd chance that the person would spot the correct choice. Using drop-downs, once the…

It's likely the article got the term of art wrong. I wouldn't put too much stock in it. Trust the direct proof over hearsay.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#48

Post by jpindar »

bovermyer wrote: post #28
evfanknitram wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you see that as terrorism?

Because that's literally the law: > TERRORISTIC THREAT > > (a) A person commits an offense if he threatens to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property with intent to: > > 2. place any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury;

That's a fucked up law. If some guys in a bar start arguing about a spilled drink and one says "I'm gonna punch you!", that shouldn't be considered terrorism!

Terrorism used to mean violence or a real threat of violence committed for political reasons. Now it just means any crime committed by someone whose motives (or whose ethnic group) the speaker disapproves of.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#49

Post by binthere »

eitland wrote: post #26
Ajedi32 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue for a menu like this: https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272 Combined with a confirmation dialog like this: https://twitter.com/Ajedi32/status/953303114995597312

Very much agree with the redesign of the page. Simple, much better. The confirmation box however might be dangerous: If employee panics they might easily fail to get that right resulting in a failure to warn in time.

I don't agree, for critical actions such as this it needs some level of protection that can be handled by trained professionals. e.g. You do not want to make it easy to send a nuclear bomb, but you also need to make sure that if there's ever a need for it, it can be done quickly by trained professionals.

Re: It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii

#50

Post by antonkm »

everdev wrote: post #12

For all developers asked to design something or not given a design - CSS padding is your friend. Add spacing and then add more. It won't make it a masterpiece but it'll prevent misclicks and make the UI easier to read and understand. Also, use headings like "Amber Alerts", "Weather" and "War". And, use semantic titles like "[TEST] Tsunami" or "ALERT! - Tsunami"

If a developer were in a position to actually change this, the options should be in separate lists, or even separate pages. If only CSS and HTML is available, they should be in two columns.

The screenshots are so bad, not even the juniors I work with would consider deploying this. It's mind boggling.

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