11 ms·
It Was Bad UX, not a “Wrong Button” in Hawaii
- heavenlyblue 9y agoBad UX? There's no UX at all (and on that matter - please stop selling your UX position to companies).
- Bahamut 9y agoEvery software users interact with has a particular UX. It’s in the words it stands for!
- HarrietJones 9y agoI've been "arguing" with people here as to what a better interface would look like, and it's interesting at how much disagreement there is. A lot (like too many) seem to think adding a yes/no dialog box would make things better, but it's well known users don't read dialog boxes. My preference would be a mcDonald's menu style UI, showing the text that will be sent in a 6x5 grid of buttons. Easy to press; easy to see what you're sending; no funky "are you sure" messages that'll be auto-clicked.
- johnchristopher 9y agoI vote for a single big red button in a translucent plastic case hung on the wall.
- barsonme 9y agoISTM there should be a phrase they have to type in that's specific to each option. Those "are you sure? [y] [n]", "are you _really_ sure? [y] [n]" dialog boxes are easy to blindly click through. Typing is a physical action. Or, even better—have it require _two_ employees.
- kemitche 9y agoIt doesn't even need that. It should start by grouping the options by severity - separate the real alerts from the test alerts via section headers and you solve 99% of the problem.
- jamessb 9y agoIndeed - something like this [1]. There's scope for further improvements, but this alone would be a vast improvement. Given the cost of a mis-click, I'd also implement a Github-style confirmation box that can't just be subconciously clicked-through ("To confirm that you wish to send a PACOM Alert, type 'pacom alert'"). [1]: https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272 https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272
- HarrietJones 9y agoMy concern with severity groups is you have users and managers deciding which messages go in which severity groups. That ignores the impact of politics and short termism on the decision making process. (e.g. How severe is a missing child?). Before you know it, everything will be in severe, and your users will be asking for a "really, really severe" category.
- james-mcelwain 9y agoMakes sense, but I would hope even the most inept manager could recognize that "AMBER Alert" and "Nuclear Annihilation Imminent" are different degrees of severity.
- 2-4-Flinching 9y agoI think kemitche was saying was they would have two groups. One would be "Test Alerts" and the other would be "Real Alerts" not that we needed to have a philosophical break down of alerts by severity. severity may have not been the best word but He did explain his definition in the next few words.
- Ajedi32 9y agoI would argue for a menu like this: https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272 https://twitter.com/iamlucamilan/status/953201356545974272 Combined with a confirmation dialog like this: https://twitter.com/Ajedi32/status/953303114995597312 https://twitter.com/Ajedi32/status/953303114995597312
- eitland 9y agoVery 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.
- Shank 9y ago> 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.
- eitland 9y ago> You have plenty of time to fix your typing. By the time you are aware of an incoming icbm I guess every second matter to save as many lives as possible. > Not being able to operate a system correctly under stress is a problem often solved with a combination of tactics, including UI... I think we actually agree. I'm not saying training isn't really important. I'm just saying that reading more than one paragraph then typing (including case sensitive text) might be hard when you fear an actual icbm.
- binthere 9y agoI 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.
- xxxdarrenxxx 9y agoTest and real scenario's shouldn't be in the same menu in the first place, and surely not mixed randomly together. - What if someone wants to click the link, but a colleague walks in and taps his shoulder to ask for something, moving his mouse in that instant to a different link - What if at the moment he clicks the link, he lifts his mouse slowly cause human, and the cursor off the mouse jumps to another link whilst in the clicking. - What if he simply clicks the wrong one, because he had an argument with his wife and his head is not quite there. There is absolutely no reason to let this depend on human interpretation skill, if you have a frigging computer + basic markup. __________________________________________________________ Prefix 1 menu with 2 BUTTONS __________________________________________________________ < test > (Test scenario's) < REAL > SHIT IS GOING DOWN TAKE COVER WAS NICE KNOWING YOU (press this only in case off real emergency) __________________________________________________________ You start with the smallest and clearest option off choice that is OBJECTIVELY POSSIBLE which is the choice off 2. If you click the wrong button due to spasms you can still go back. Even better is make the resulting list for "REAL" have a BLOOD RED BACKGROUND COLOR. Colours have proven a billion times over to work for traffic/brake lights, and the chance you do not notice bright red staring in your face is VERY UNLIKELY. I specifically say red, because if your an adult in the west, this specific memory " red is danger/alert " is strongly ingrained. Alzheimer might not even be able to touch it.
- yoz-y 9y agoThe problem in this particular case is that almost anything would be better. Probably the only thing to make this worse would be to also mislabel things. Which is why there are plenty ideas for a better design.
- ClintEhrlich 9y agoThe major problem with the UI is that various types of tests and actual alerts are displayed together on one list. The system should start with two options: test vs. real alert, which open up separate menus. Those menus should be visually distinct (e.g., different color background, options for former all end in (TEST)".
- Doxin 9y agoPersonally I'd go for a radiobutton list, with a submit button. That way there's time to double-check your selection. Furthermore the real alert should probably pop up a bright red page with flashing warning lights and siren sounds indicating that the user is entering a serious situation. This all is assuming that falsely sending a test alert is no big deal.
- igitur 9y agoThe 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 incorrect choice was made, there is really very little chance of realising the error.
- jpindar 9y agoI 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.
- Shank 9y agoThe one in the article is sourced as from HIEMA.
- bena 9y agoIt'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.
- HarrietJones 9y agoA lot of conversations seem fixated on what's the worst that could happen if the wrong message was sent, but very few of these people are considering what's the worst that could happen if the right message wasn't sent. Also, it's very likely that the dropdown message text was not added by a developer, and this addition of the messages by non-technical users should also be part of that UX conversation.
- notjustanymike 9y agoTsunami warning: Everyone seeks high ground. Missile warning: Everyone flees to basements. Right next to each other, no way that'll go wrong.
- ourmandave 9y agoApropos to nothing, the actual user experience between a Tsunami and a Nuke are quite different.
- ams6110 9y agoIf the nuke is off target and lands in the water you could have both?
- bovermyer 9y ago> 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.
- evfanknitram 9y agoWhy do you see that as terrorism?
- bovermyer 9y agoBecause 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;
- bagels 9y agoThe operator did not threaten to commit violence.
- dsnuh 9y agoThe OP was referring to the people threatening the operators for the mistake.
- jpindar 9y agoThat'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.
- datpuz 9y agoThe 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.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoAka, blame the user, not the design. The FAA got away from that because it caused too many planes to drop out of the sky. Sure, user errors will happen, but designs should try to avoid them and mitigate their consequences.
- derekp7 9y agoOften times a web page will have buttons that dance around the screen, if the page is still loading elements. That can cause misclicks too.
- jpindar 9y agoI hates that so much, especially on mobile sites which load so slowly that a miss click takes ages to recover from.
- sokoloff 9y agoI don't think this is at all accidental.
- datpuz 9y agoActually the Hacker News mobile app for iOS has done this for as long as I can remember and it's extremely annoying that it still hasn't been fixed. After opening the app, if I click a post right as it updates, I'll often click whatever just loaded in its place.
- jcadam 9y agoI've been a software engineer in the defense industry my entire career. No contract I've ever been a part of included a UI/UX designer, I rather doubt the customer would have been willing to pay for one. Interfaces are always designed by the programmers alone, and they are universally awful. Heck, several years ago I remember having to learn Blender so I could create 3D models for some simulation software (no one else to do it, guess it's me again -> here have some rockets that look like something out of 1950s scifi). Apparently the folks writing the contract didn't think we'd need anyone with any 3D art skills to create 3D visualization software.
- everdev 9y agoFor 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"
- antonkm 9y agoIf 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.
- dhruvmittal 9y ago>The screenshots are so bad, not even the juniors I work with would consider deploying this. It's mind boggling. Not defending the UI too much but I'm imagining this is something built and deployed on government contract in the late 90s or early 2000s (when it was considered high technology that they could do this from a web page in the first place?), occasionally migrated to whatever marginally newer system is required by law while consuming the minimal amount of funding. It's a damn shame but a lot of govt. stuff ends up in this exact boat because nobody wants to pay to improve something that "already works."
- antonkm 9y agoI think you're a bit off with the time frame. The system sends push notifications to citizens in a specific area, or am I mistaken? Are these texts?
- slowhands 9y agoThe Wireless Emergency Alerts system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Emergency_Alerts) dates back to 2006, but it is quite plausible that the backend this interface controls predates that if it was originally a desktop interface for the Emergency Broadcast/Emergency Alert System.
- nolo 9y agoTaking 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
- yoz-y 9y agoExperienced employees will not mindlessly click on Yes, because they have experience with it going wrong. Having yes/no labels on buttons, or this kind of random labeled links in haphazard order is always bad. Experienced users may not do errors, but their life would still be better if the UX was good. UX is the same as accessibility, if it is good it does not bother you but it can always help, even if you think you do not need it.
- Ajedi32 9y agoSo use a confirmation dialog that can't be mindlessly clicked through: https://i.imgur.com/P18lgRb.png https://i.imgur.com/P18lgRb.png
- schnable 9y agoDisagree. Experienced employees make mistakes, too.
- jasonpeacock 9y agoDo we know if the test button also includes a confirmation dialog? In that case, the two actions are pretty much indistinguishable. Good UX would eliminate any mindless clicking, for example: * significantly different workflow than the test workflow * requiring multi-person confirmation * showing the resulting action with (time-limited) undo * and more...
- macintux 9y agoGood UX also matters for: Tired employees. Stressed employees. And of course everyone impacted by the decisions of tired & stressed employees.
- macspoofing 9y ago>good UX only matters for inexperienced employees No. People are people. They will make mistakes - even smart and experienced individuals.
- Chaebixi 9y agoThere was a very similar incident in 1971 ("code word hatefulness"). Back then, three tapes were kept next to a EBS transmitter, two real alerts and one for testing. One day, an operator accidentally loaded the real alert rather than the correct test alert, and many stations prepared to tell the country the nuclear war was imminent. The fix was to: > …In the past three tapes, one for the test and two for actual emergencies, were hanging on three labeled hooks above the transmitter… In the future only the test tape will be left near the transmitter. The two emergency tapes [will be] be sealed in clearly marked envelopes and placed inside a nearby cabinet. http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/09/code-word-hatefulness-great-ebs-scare.html http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/09/code-word-hatefulness-g...
- MaxBarraclough 9y agoThat's a good example. Shockingly poor foresight. It's similar to the "A gun is always loaded" principle. Unless you can tell at a glance that a firearm is not in a ready-to-fire state, you treat it as if it is. People are clumsy and forgetful, and you only have to mess up once. Leaving the live rounds right next to the blanks, in that way, is pretty indefensible. (Ignoring of course that blanks can still kill, for this analogy.)
- qbrass 9y ago>Unless you can tell at a glance that a firearm is not in a ready-to-fire state, you treat it as if it is That's when you need to treat it like it is the most.
- MaxBarraclough 9y agoYou'd really exercise more caution with a broken-open shotgun than a closed one?
- qbrass 9y agoNot more, but I wouldn't let my guard down just because it's playing dead.
- dsjoerg 9y agoAt each level, people with grave responsibilities did not take their responsibility seriously enough. From the top to the bottom. Button-pusher: obviously. Interface designer: clearly. Manager responsible for project: also The manager's manager: yes The whole department head: how is this person making decisions? The people who set the budgets and procedures: How do they know that work is being done well enough? Vern Miyagi: From decades in the army, your process designers should understand best practices in the design of emergency systems, and yet they clearly did not. Why? Arthur "Joe" Logan: Same question. Ironically http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/hawaii-emergency-management-agency-statement-on-missile-launch-false-alarm-january-13-2018/ http://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/hawaii-emergency-management-agen... fails with a Javascript error about "superclick is not a function". Anyway it goes all the way up, apparently through the military chain of command. So I say Thanks Obama.
- abakker 9y agoWhat? I think you need to balance your list's narrative with the reality that delegation includes some abdication of understanding. It is necessarily an abstraction from the work itself. While responsibility may lie with a superior for the error itself and the process that gave rise to it, it is a responsibility of seniority - owning the outcomes of the organization you run - not responsibility for the act itself. Moreover, there is another dimension in that inertia in the org structure itself can't be pinned on any one person. Organizations by their very nature are supposed to be tolerant of changes and gaps in the knowledge of their members. This tolerance leads to inertia. the Inertia of the military is extreme and difficult to change. The more abstraction between the leader and the actual work, the more difficult it is to evaluate and enact the right change in the right way in the right timeframe. So, while your comment may in essence be right that there is a chain of command failure around this issue, it also strains credibility to claim that this failure belongs to Obama, one year into his successor's presidency, when the structure that this event took place in is much older than either of them.
- AtTheLast 9y agoAdding some color and better labeling would be good. Also I would have a confirmation dialog box to confirm what will happen when the button is pressed.
- Overtonwindow 9y agoCould be both. The UI looks like a home-built web 1.0 page from 2001.
- masswerk 9y agoNo, it's mobile first... ;-)
- nsxwolf 9y agoWhy are we talking about dropdown boxes and modal confirm messages? Shouldn't it be basically impossible for the same system that sends test messages to also send real messages? If it takes two people turning two keys to launch a missile, shouldn't it take the same to send a missile warning?
- theandrewbailey 9y ago> If it takes two people turning two keys to launch a missile, shouldn't it take the same to send a missile warning? Hell no. A missile launch involves a large expenditure of resources, and (sometimes) lots of destruction. A missile warning should not.
- nsxwolf 9y agoI think this whole thing could be seen as a blessing in disguise, but I don't hear anyone talking about it. We seem totally unprepared for this kind of event. The message said take shelter, so why were people running around screaming and crying in the streets? People were throwing their kids into storm drains. Clever, but what happens to them after that? Where do we go? How long do we have to stay there? Who is going to pass out the iodine pills? Where's the clean water? What will we eat? Who will come get us when it's all over? It seems like we gave a damn about this many years ago during the Cold War. There were drills in schools, public service messages, people bought bomb shelters, there was the Civil Defense. Once in awhile I see one of those public bomb shelter placards on a building and wonder if there really still is one or if it is just some old artifact someone forgot to take down. We laugh at all this stuff like ironic hipsters and now we see the results.
- jasonmaydie 9y agoI think we should be making a lot of effort to prevent this kind of event than to prepare for this kind of event. It was a blessing in disguise indeed because it made people realize that talk is cheap and showmanship really can lead to some horrible outcomes.
- jack6e 9y agoGreat point. I wonder what Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran think about our reaction, and what ways they see to manipulate it. Most Americans now consider war as "something our all-powerful military does in other places and protects us from worrying about at home." The lack of preparedness you are describing is the result of a mindset that believes any and all attacks will be stopped before reaching the homeland.
- jklowden 9y agoNo one stopped caring. What we stopped doing was pretending the civilian population could be protected against nuclear holocaust. The bomb that obliterated Hiroshima was a toy next to a thermonuclear bomb, which is 1000 times as powerful. If one lands on Oahu, there won't be anyone to pass out iodine pills in Hawaii, or anyone to pass them out to. Hawaii is just stupid to spend a nickel on an early warning system. The only reason it exists is that too many people don't understand what they're supposedly being warned, or that they are utterly defenseless. Sometimes, the only protection is prevention. This is one.
- soapdude 9y agoDid anybody read about or see the NBC segment where they were exploring the exact D.O.D. bunker in Hawaii where the emergency phone, and I assume alert system computer, were held. Did this actually happen? Was NBC actually in the same room as the computer where the alert originated before the alert actually was sent out? Let me know if I'm being misinformed by low-life YouTube conspirators.
- jack6e 9y agoIn some ways I think the poor design decisions start with making a system of this nature, with this purpose, digital in the first place. With the current state of weapons systems, multi-domain tactics, and the technical capabilities of near-peer rivals, or the types of state actors capable of launching a ballistic missile, a massive cyber/electronic attack will almost certainly precede the kinetic weapons wave. Really, I would want a ballistic missile warning system to be as simple, physical, and reliable as, literally, a big button that sets off the warning broadcast over loudspeakers. It is impossible to prepare for every contingency that may arise from an unexpected all-out attack, but the obvious ones with clear solutions should be mitigated.
- jkolyer 9y agoDo not believe anything printed in Wapo.
- Froyoh 9y agoWhy is that?
- turc1656 9y agoThis doesn't add up for me and doesn't pass the smell test. Looking at that dashboard and the way it's set up and knowing PACOM stands for Pacific Command, I'm not buying this story at all. Look at the way that screen is designed. You don't just click one of those and it sends the alert off. The link sets the type of alert (i.e. Amber) and the destination/recipients (i.e county, statewide, etc.). It doesn't set the content. Logically, this must be true. An amber alert needs specifics like, most commonly, the license plate of a vehicle. That means someone clicked that link and then manually filled out the text "this is not a drill". That makes this peculiar sentence from the article make more sense - "I wish I could say there was a simple reason for why it took so long to get the correction to the false alert out". That line from the article struck me as odd the first time around, especially since no explanation at all was offered from what I saw. I believe they really thought there were incoming missiles and that's why they didn't rescind the alert immediately. Let's also remember that when this alert went out the person who sent it as well as anyone else working with them would have received it on their own phones and someone surely would have said "holy shit you just sent out a real nuclear war alert!" And then they would have gone back and filled out different text/content for an updated alert. There is precisely zero chance it took 38 whole minutes for everyone in that place to realize it was a real alert and figure out how to send a follow up.
- ghostly_s 9y agoIt's possible the test procedure does send an authentic-looking alert to the devices of staff at this facility? Even in that case I would think their phones would be ringing off the phone in seconds with incoming calls from loved ones wondering what the hell is going on...
- turc1656 9y agoExactly. No matter what, they would have been contacted by the outside world, probably directly by Admiral Harris (the commander of the Pacific Fleet). 38 minutes makes no sense at all unless they were really trying to figure out if they were under attack or not. They probably viewed this admission of error as being less embarrassing as not knowing that they weren't under attack when Japan released a statement within a few minutes saying it wasn't true. They look even more incompetent in that scenario.
- Rudism 9y agoTheir solution to the problem was to add an additional "BDM False Alarm" entry to the list of alerts which will send out the message that the previous alert was a false alarm and there is no threat. Perhaps they should also add a "false alarm that this was a false alarm, there really is a threat after all" option in case the "false alarm" option is selected accidentally after warning about a real threat. /s I don't know how anyone in Hawaii can be expected to trust or take these alerts seriously after this.