↪ Replying to @OrangeFact
@OrangeFact @MabandeOpenBeta You need to follow this bot that corrects people using the wrong flag. Love it. x.com/axbom/status/9…
↪ Replying to @PressSec45
@PressSec What does that even mean if the sentence doesn’t continue?
”I’d probably...” if what?
WSJ should have understood it was an incoherent sentence rather than a coherent one?
I’ve used this clip from Monsters vs Aliens in lectures about usability over the years. Never could I have imagined I would truly worry about the actual design of this, allegedly big, button as much as I currently do. Also, the Oprah reference is now uncanny...
It appears the operator in Hawaii had two options in a drop-down menu:
(1) Test missile alert
(2) Missile alert
In a drop-down there are no visual cues to guide the user, no size or color differences, no marked distance between click areas.
washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati…
The only difference in options is the word ”Test”. Both options may display, ”Are you sure?” but thinking you have selected the right one you will always select ”Yes/Continue”.
I have no idea about this dropdown but sometimes people inadvertently select an unintended option because mouse scroll wheels also scroll in dropdowns.
A dropdown may in fact be the worst possible design option for this type of interaction. Or to be more clear: devastatingly inappropriate.
Added to this: there was no way to easily cancel and undo the outgoing alert once the operator was aware of the mistake. No way to automatically send out a correction.
Ideally I would expect a call for UX/usability professionals to review computerized tools across the world, but alas I believe we will continue to see interface mistakes larger than this one.
I now hope Hawaii will be as transparent as possible about the chain of events, to create awareness and keep repeated mistakes of the same kind to a minimum in all countries.
Never before has the importance of positive friction in interfaces been so glaringly obvious.
I just published: The Usability of Buttons that Harm or Save Lives
medium.com/@axbom/the-usa…
OMFG. This appears to be the interface that was at fault for the ballistic missile alarm on Hawaii. It is way way worse than I possibly could have conjured up in my wildest dreams.
x.com/CivilBeat/stat…
So in my article yesterday I referenced WarGames (the movie), but I did not see this image coming... #hawaii
» Yesterday's article: medium.com/misusability/t…
You can now get a feel for the interface (The mockup interaction is purely based on imagination and lack of time - any similarities with the actual interaction design, beyond what is in the screenshot, is purely coincidental).
udo.se/hawaii/ #hawaii
Just now realized why the number ”1” is there. In a fit of desperation the users tried to see if they could sort the links by numbering the template names...
Stop the presses! This also is not the correct interface... civilbeat.org/2018/01/hawaii… via @andysternberg #hawaii
Been coming across some ”design suggestions” for the Emergency Warning Messaging interface... some of them are really not showing the profession in good light. 😬 Or I just don’t know what a joke is anymore. 🤪
I think we can agree that spending a few hours ”throwing something together” is how problems arise. Whatever the chain of events leading to the incident, problems are systemic and bigger and broader than a single interface.
Read @jmspool’s take on the likely setup that contributed to the false ballistic missile alert: filenames. medium.com/ux-immersion-i… #hawaii
Love this table to help us understand the scale of time in which a computer operates. Found via the article Meltdown, Spectre and the State of Technology: stratechery.com/2018/meltdown-…
↪ Replying to @TexasLiberty15
@TexasLiberty15 Agree, not required but very likely. Here’s the same physician on Obama: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/…
A doctor would also sign ”Ronny Jackson, MD”, not ”Dr. Ronny Jackson.” But whatevs, this seems to be actual reality now. The president faking a note to get out of gym class. x.com/maddowblog/sta…
↪ Replying to @emanuelkarlsten
@emanuelkarlsten Väldigt sant. Jag blev mest förvånad att det öht dök upp!
”We need your slidedeck 1 week prior to the conference.”
The one sentence of the instructions that all speakers never repeat out loud and tend to think may have just been part of a weird dream featuring a tank of water and a wookie that is best to forget. ”What’s that now?”
↪ Replying to @emanuelkarlsten
@emanuelkarlsten Det rullar ändå på bra det där med gurkor... senast refererat för 4 dagar sedan(!)
@emanuelkarlsten Dock noll retweets det senaste året förstås...
A good measure of your stance on equality is asking yourself the question: ”What would I be willing to give up for someone else to have a better life?”
One dietary recommendation to prevent from over-eating is to avoid having junk food at home. The more friction to consume, the less likely you are to do so. Thinking the exact samt thing applies to firearms. Humans, quite predictable really. 🧐
In fact, the friction of a 2-7 day delay to buy a gun saves lives... sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/g…
↪ Replying to @boxysuite
@getboxy Thanks for looking at it. Haven’t used that avatar in over 5 years so the fact it’s showing up is an interesting testament to the complex plumbing of the Internet =)
Last year I wrote about the possibility of identifying devices through the unique lens scratches of every camera, detectable only by software. Turns out Facebook has been aware of this possibility much longer than that. gizmodo.com/facebook-knows…
Here is the article in which I mention this, under the heading ”False sense of safety”. medium.com/misusability/i…
With this method, no matter what an audio file sounds like, the text output will be whatever the attacker wants it to be. thenextweb.com/artificial-int…
The sentence is: ”If you don't want to do something, make a deal with yourself to do at least five minutes of it.”
Fits snugly in a tweet. x.com/inc/status/951…
Does anyone actually go through those ”Why did you unsubscribe?” responses to newsletters and make an action plan based on the data?
If not, I wonder if we could calculate the number of human hours wasted on responding to that...
I wonder when journalists will realize there are no ”people on the Internet”, just other humans in different geographic locations.
↪ Replying to @unknown
@steveportigal Fun 'fact'. Frankenstein's aunt is from Sweden. But you knew that.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenst…