5 ms·

Worth the read just for the horrible B-17 bit used as opener. Good hook.

by ableal 4y ago

scythmic_waves 4y ago
Yeah I'm mentally filing that image [1] away for later use. [1]: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/static-assets/images/blog-post/instrument%20panel.jpg https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/static-assets/images/blog-post/instr...
mastermedo 4y ago
+1. The B-17 design flaw analogy is one of the best I’ve seen. The title is great as well, very catchy.
a_c 4y ago
To my ignorance, didn't know this gentleman before. Nice article, pure substance. Would love to learn more about him.
kitd 4y ago
It reminds me of the accidental Hawaii nuclear missile alert a few years back. AIUI, the button to test the system was in close proximity to the button to send the real thing.
- agency 4y ago
  Or much lower stakes but the terrible UI that caused Citibank to accidentally give away $500M[1] (though they got it back on appeal [2]). I am always amazed to see the awful, awful software people put up with to do their jobs. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-go... [2] https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/citigroup-wins-appeal-over-mistaken-revlon-wire-transfer-2022-09-08/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/citigroup-wins-appeal-ove...
  - pmarreck 4y ago
    that's the most obtuse UI for a money transfer (especially one so large) that I've ever seen. And THREE PEOPLE all signed off on it!
- Arrath 4y ago
  There were some choices gif/memes to come out of that, though like the top one here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a15228103/hawaii-missile-alert-false-alarm-memes/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...
  - pmarreck 4y ago
    omg, that gif is triggering me. I CANNOT STAND UI's that are interactable before they have completed their layout rendering! Or things like notifications that suddenly push everything down, right when you were about to tap on one of those elements! Why is this still a thing? Any UI element that shifts or appears should have like a user-adjustable half-second delay before it becomes interactable again
    - lmm 4y ago
      I suspect the real reason it's still a thing is that it makes users more likely to click on ads, which is after all how most of the internet makes its money.
      - bigiain 4y ago
        "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads." -- Jeff Hammerbacher
    - lelandfe 4y ago
      Former frontend performance guy here – "Cumulative Layout Shift" is the measure of this jank, and yes, it is the absolute worst. Conversely, it's hard to overstate how magical sites become when you get that down to 0. Once stuff stops shifting, users are effectively fooled into believing that sites are finished loading. Sites just feel fast, even if things are still happening. It's sadly hard to get there, and very easily worsens.
    - wantoncl 4y ago
      Hilariously, I was trying to enable the minimal JS needed to view that page, and UMatrix DID THE EXACT SAME THING, it shifted down a site I wanted to block under my mouse button. :) For all you dystopian fiction writers: the end of all humanity, caused by lazy loading JavaScript. It shouldn't take more than a weekend, and the "Terrifyingly realistic!" reviews will write themselves.
- ak39 4y ago
  “That’s one heck of a nurse” after hitting the Nuke button which was right next to the “Nurse” button. Can you guess which music video that’s from?
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
    Land of Confusion I really like that music video.
javajosh 4y ago
He also could have used Chernobyl as an example.
- CamperBob2 4y ago
  Chernobyl was very different, due to the negligence factor. "Hold my vodka and watch THIS" is no way to run a nuclear power plant.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I guess they're arguing that the "fail deadly" design was a design flaw, even if it should never have been encountered in actual operation.
    - mjb 4y ago
      Indeed. See "Why INSAG has still got it wrong" by Anatoly Dyatlov himself. The money quote: > How and why should the operators have compensated for design errors they did not know about? Dyatlov is clearly biased here, but he raises excellent questions.
pmarreck 4y ago
I've never seen that example and reading it, I was surely mouth-agape dumbfounded that anyone thought that would be OK to design like that
ilyt 4y ago
Personally I was more impressed by the director being a dolphin, altho they coud've found better photo of him, he looks a bit fat. But to be fair It's not that bad when you realize using flaps and gear is time correlated - you slow down, enable flaps, get near the airport, then put the gear down. There is no "I want to put the gear down in situation when enabling flaps would fuck stuff up too much"
- UncleEntity 4y ago
  > There is no "I want to put the gear down in situation when enabling flaps would fuck stuff up too much" Unless, maybe, you just limped your plane in because it’s missing a big chunk of a wing. One thing the military does is try to make it hard to make a simple mistake and kill a bunch of your own troops. During the last Iraq invasion I was running around with a fuel tanker which had a pony motor to offload the fuel. It was pretty complicated with a bunch of levers and valves you had to set to get the fuel flowing the right way (and not on the ground) but had a data plate to tell you what to do, easy peasy. One day we were at a bag farm dumping fuel and this staff sergeant wandered up and says I’m doing it wrong. “Data plate” I say and point at the data plate but she started to get all huffy so, whatever, do what she says which was all fine and good until the tanker starts filling up because it is set up backwards. She made some lame excuse for not following the law of the one true god, the data plate, and wandered off to bother someone else.
  - ilyt 4y ago
    I mean, the changes are clear improvement, the whole panel is basically "random stuff barely related to eachother" but I feel author is overstating how bad it actually is

Worth the read just for the horrible B-17 bit used as opener. Good hook.

by ableal 4y ago

Worth the read just for the horrible B-17 bit used as opener. Good hook.

Yeah I'm mentally filing that image [1] away for later use. [1]: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/static-assets/images/blog-post/instrument%20panel.jpg https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/static-assets/images/blog-post/instr...

mastermedo 4y ago

+1. The B-17 design flaw analogy is one of the best I’ve seen. The title is great as well, very catchy.

a_c 4y ago

To my ignorance, didn't know this gentleman before. Nice article, pure substance. Would love to learn more about him.

kitd 4y ago

It reminds me of the accidental Hawaii nuclear missile alert a few years back. AIUI, the button to test the system was in close proximity to the button to send the real thing.

agency 4y ago
Or much lower stakes but the terrible UI that caused Citibank to accidentally give away $500M[1] (though they got it back on appeal [2]). I am always amazed to see the awful, awful software people put up with to do their jobs. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-go... [2] https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/citigroup-wins-appeal-over-mistaken-revlon-wire-transfer-2022-09-08/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/citigroup-wins-appeal-ove...
- pmarreck 4y ago
  that's the most obtuse UI for a money transfer (especially one so large) that I've ever seen. And THREE PEOPLE all signed off on it!
Arrath 4y ago
There were some choices gif/memes to come out of that, though like the top one here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a15228103/hawaii-missile-alert-false-alarm-memes/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...
- pmarreck 4y ago
  omg, that gif is triggering me. I CANNOT STAND UI's that are interactable before they have completed their layout rendering! Or things like notifications that suddenly push everything down, right when you were about to tap on one of those elements! Why is this still a thing? Any UI element that shifts or appears should have like a user-adjustable half-second delay before it becomes interactable again
  - lmm 4y ago
    I suspect the real reason it's still a thing is that it makes users more likely to click on ads, which is after all how most of the internet makes its money.
    - bigiain 4y ago
      "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads." -- Jeff Hammerbacher
  - lelandfe 4y ago
    Former frontend performance guy here – "Cumulative Layout Shift" is the measure of this jank, and yes, it is the absolute worst. Conversely, it's hard to overstate how magical sites become when you get that down to 0. Once stuff stops shifting, users are effectively fooled into believing that sites are finished loading. Sites just feel fast, even if things are still happening. It's sadly hard to get there, and very easily worsens.
  - wantoncl 4y ago
    Hilariously, I was trying to enable the minimal JS needed to view that page, and UMatrix DID THE EXACT SAME THING, it shifted down a site I wanted to block under my mouse button. :) For all you dystopian fiction writers: the end of all humanity, caused by lazy loading JavaScript. It shouldn't take more than a weekend, and the "Terrifyingly realistic!" reviews will write themselves.
ak39 4y ago
“That’s one heck of a nurse” after hitting the Nuke button which was right next to the “Nurse” button. Can you guess which music video that’s from?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  Land of Confusion I really like that music video.

javajosh 4y ago

He also could have used Chernobyl as an example.

CamperBob2 4y ago
Chernobyl was very different, due to the negligence factor. "Hold my vodka and watch THIS" is no way to run a nuclear power plant.
- bombcar 4y ago
  I guess they're arguing that the "fail deadly" design was a design flaw, even if it should never have been encountered in actual operation.
  - mjb 4y ago
    Indeed. See "Why INSAG has still got it wrong" by Anatoly Dyatlov himself. The money quote: > How and why should the operators have compensated for design errors they did not know about? Dyatlov is clearly biased here, but he raises excellent questions.

pmarreck 4y ago

I've never seen that example and reading it, I was surely mouth-agape dumbfounded that anyone thought that would be OK to design like that

ilyt 4y ago

Personally I was more impressed by the director being a dolphin, altho they coud've found better photo of him, he looks a bit fat. But to be fair It's not that bad when you realize using flaps and gear is time correlated - you slow down, enable flaps, get near the airport, then put the gear down. There is no "I want to put the gear down in situation when enabling flaps would fuck stuff up too much"

UncleEntity 4y ago
> There is no "I want to put the gear down in situation when enabling flaps would fuck stuff up too much" Unless, maybe, you just limped your plane in because it’s missing a big chunk of a wing. One thing the military does is try to make it hard to make a simple mistake and kill a bunch of your own troops. During the last Iraq invasion I was running around with a fuel tanker which had a pony motor to offload the fuel. It was pretty complicated with a bunch of levers and valves you had to set to get the fuel flowing the right way (and not on the ground) but had a data plate to tell you what to do, easy peasy. One day we were at a bag farm dumping fuel and this staff sergeant wandered up and says I’m doing it wrong. “Data plate” I say and point at the data plate but she started to get all huffy so, whatever, do what she says which was all fine and good until the tanker starts filling up because it is set up backwards. She made some lame excuse for not following the law of the one true god, the data plate, and wandered off to bother someone else.
- ilyt 4y ago
  I mean, the changes are clear improvement, the whole panel is basically "random stuff barely related to eachother" but I feel author is overstating how bad it actually is