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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

#341

Post by ghostly_s »

freeflight wrote: post #263
fencepost wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that confirmation window is on every message drill or not, then it would be completely useless. Users have been trained to click past/ignore pop-ups. I say this as someone who watches people log in on PCs and click past a useless (for them) Citrix dialog that includes a "stop asking" checkbox. Citrix added that checkbox some time ago, so these folks have been vacuously ignoring the entire thing at least once per b…

> If that confirmation window is on every message drill or not, then it would be completely useless. Users have been trained to click past/ignore pop-ups. That would apply to something that's used routinely, I'm not sure this system is actually used that often. Do these emergency systems send out "this is a drill" messages really that regularly? As a non-US person that sounds like a quite scary way to live. Even if i…

> That would apply to something that's used routinely, I'm not sure this system is actually used that often. Do these emergency systems send out "this is a drill" messages really that regularly? As a non-US person that sounds like a quite scary way to live.

Per the explanation provided by the agency, this is a drill that is conducted at every shift change, so presumably multiple times a day. I gather it does not send any actual alert to the public, just simulates it (perhaps sends to a small pool of test devices?) But it's appearing more and more likely that we've been giving a misleading explanation for this incident so who knows.

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

#342

Post by bsder »

JdeBP wrote: post #67
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…

The claim at https://twitter.com/discreetsecure/status/953226818357727233 is that there already is a confirmation dialogue. It is the same for every option, and it does not mention which option has been chosen.

Sadly, that IS important.

When someone is in a crisis situation, their actions have to be the SAME as a drill. Making someone do or type something different when things are already hectic is likely to send them into brain-lock.

The solution is something extra that pops up AFTER doing everything the same that says "Sending real alert in 10 ... 9 ... 8 ..." with a "Type: "Abort" in text field to stop".

If the operator brain freezes whether real or fake, the alert still goes out in 10 seconds. If the operator screwed up but doesn't brain-freeze, he can stop the situation.

That's pretty much the best you can do if you're trying to make your drill and your alarm almost identical in order to maximize crisis performance.

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

#343

Post by sydd »

acdha wrote: post #219
sydd wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not an expert, but you should not hire colorblind people to operate a nuclear warning system.

You're saying that people should be prevented from getting jobs they're capable of performing because the alternative is to crack open decades old usability texts? There are multiple suggestions in this thread which could be easily implemented at little-to-no extra cost without sacrificing accessibility.

No, its because for certain jobs you need certain qualities. They might upgrade this system, but who knows what else lurks in their basement. Its the same reason why you would not train a severely short-sighted person to be a sniper.

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

#344

Post by jdmichal »

nokcha wrote: post #313
jdmichal wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are contracted to modify it (regardless of what the buyer said he wanted) - and you are responsible for not making it dangerous. Actually, with government contracts, you are legally obligated to perform only the task assigned. Providing work to the government without the government paying for it is illegal . And you are only being paid for what's in the contract. (This is actually overall a good thing. Otherwis…

>Providing work to the government without the government paying for it is illegal. The Anti-Deficiency Act only prohibits "voluntary" services, not "gratuitous" services. Prior to the passage of the law, it was not unusual for cash-strapped gov't agencies to accept "voluntary" services (i.e., no formal obligation to pay for them) but then pay for them later after being allocated more funds. Congress didn't like this…

Thanks for the important clarification. I think the relevant part for this conversation is that the work still has to be outlined within a contract, and that contract has to specify that there is no compensation. That's a drastically different scenario than pretty much any developer in a government contract situation would find themselves. It would still be illegal to do work outside of that specified in the contract!

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

#345

Post by chaostheory »

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…

> 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

What some designers don't realize is that, in reality, they are also in sales. If they can't effectively pitch their ideas to non-designer audiences, it doesn't matter how good their design is; it won't be used.

It's not a coincidence that Paul Rand would include a hefty proposal book along with his logos.

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

#346

Post by kelnos »

jrockway wrote: post #275
crispyambulance wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like quite a normal UI from an "internal" government or enterprise application point of view. In this case, the citizens of Hawaii paid for the bad system design with 48 minutes of existential horror. But these kinds of mistakes happens ALL THE TIME with "enterprise applications." Oracle has similar horrendous UX for their EBS (Enterprise Business Suite), so does SAP, Siemens, etc. People regularly make cost…

I don't know. The interface could be better, but a different interface wouldn't necessarily stop someone who's confused from sending the wrong alert. How many times do you see a dialog box and click "yes" without even reading it? I do it all the time, and it's usually fine... except sometimes I think "wait, what did I just agree to!?" Someone under pressure to get that drill going can easily make the same mistakes, n…

You don't even need confirmation boxes to make this better. Put the "test" options in a section all by itself, clearly labeled as test functionality. Put the real-world scary options in another section, labeled clearly, and perhaps colored red, or badged in such a way (red alert icon, or something) to indicate it's a real-world, serious action.

> With great power comes great responsibility.

Yes, and designers here have a lot of power and responsibility to design an interface that is difficult to use in the wrong way, and doesn't treat options with wildly different real-world consequences as equivalent.

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

#347

Post by kelnos »

WalterBright wrote: post #318
crispyambulance wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like quite a normal UI from an "internal" government or enterprise application point of view. In this case, the citizens of Hawaii paid for the bad system design with 48 minutes of existential horror. But these kinds of mistakes happens ALL THE TIME with "enterprise applications." Oracle has similar horrendous UX for their EBS (Enterprise Business Suite), so does SAP, Siemens, etc. People regularly make cost…

> But these kinds of mistakes happens ALL THE TIME with "enterprise applications." Such misteackes in the cockpit of an airliner are deadly, which is why a great deal of effort is expended to prevent such mistakes. Unfortunately, 1. bad UI design is usually only obvious in hindsight 2. doing good UI design is expensive, and not always worth the effort Of course, I face the same sorts of issues in designing a programm…

> bad UI design is usually only obvious in hindsight

That's only true if you have little or no experience designing or even using interfaces. As someone who has been bitten by bad UI design in the past, I've noticed and called out a decent amount of bad design well before it actually has caused a problem.

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

#348

Post by Twirrim »

crispyambulance wrote: post #61
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…

It looks like quite a normal UI from an "internal" government or enterprise application point of view. In this case, the citizens of Hawaii paid for the bad system design with 48 minutes of existential horror. But these kinds of mistakes happens ALL THE TIME with "enterprise applications." Oracle has similar horrendous UX for their EBS (Enterprise Business Suite), so does SAP, Siemens, etc. People regularly make cost…

> I expect the same employee in Hawaii fumbled the UI on their "time off request" for psychiatric counseling too.

That requires a paper form. The payroll system in the state has failed to be upgraded for some 20 years or so of promises. Staff are paid via checks which are sent direct to their banks because they can't even pay over the wire.

Here's a good article about it: http://khon2.com/2015/05/11/costly-consequences-of-outdated-...

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

#349

Post by ClassyJacket »

jtolmar wrote: post #331
amelius wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, it would be a fun exercise to imagine how e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft or Apple would have designed this screen :)

Google, Apple, and Twitter have hidden the actual launch alert behind three layers of sub menus. Facebook has three layers of sub menus too, but that's the drill and the actual launch is on the front page. Microsoft just has one of these buttons; what's hidden behind the three layers of sub menus is the toggle for whether it's a drill.

Facebook's drill button would be hidden in a huge list of other buttons, the order of which changes randomly every time the page is loaded, and the button would only show up 30% of the time based on an algorithm. Some users would never see the button based on what the algorithm decides, despite specifically adding the button to their list.

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

#350

Post by acdha »

sydd wrote: post #343
acdha wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying that people should be prevented from getting jobs they're capable of performing because the alternative is to crack open decades old usability texts? There are multiple suggestions in this thread which could be easily implemented at little-to-no extra cost without sacrificing accessibility.

No, its because for certain jobs you need certain qualities. They might upgrade this system, but who knows what else lurks in their basement. Its the same reason why you would not train a severely short-sighted person to be a sniper.

There’s a big difference there: for a sniper, vision is a core skill.

For someone sending alerts, color vision is not — things like keeping cool under pressure, following procedure, interpreting chaotic information, etc. are.

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