
Hawaii missile alert: How one employee ‘pushed the wrong button’ - collinmanderson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/14/hawaii-missile-alert-how-one-employee-pushed-the-wrong-button-and-caused-a-wave-of-panic/
======
wiseleo
From the article, the employee chose the wrong item from the "drop down menu".

That is just bad UX. Such interfaces should have a confirmation like "You are
about to send a REAL alert to millions of cell phones. Please type
ENDOFTHEWORLD in ALL CAPS to confirm".

There is no reason to have this as a drop down menu where a slip of a mouse
can lead to a false alarm.

~~~
TillE
Would be better to have the test interface on a completely different screen,
perhaps with a different background color. You really should never need to
access both functions at the same time.

~~~
cratermoon
Yes! Why is the action to run a routine test right next to the action to start
a consequential chain of events?

------
tritium

      From a drop-down menu on a computer program, 
      he saw two options: “Test missile alert” 
      and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to 
      choose the former; as much of the world now 
      knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a 
      real-life missile alert.
    

Oh man, it just blows my mind to hear things like this still operating
throughout the world, after dealing for so long with high availability systems
built to be super redundant, and insulated with compliance software and
handing off highly documented procedures to dedicated teams operating change-
control plans during graveyard shifts to minimize downtime.

------
thiagocsf
The article also says there IS a confirmation dialog.

And it says, in the future, someone else will be required to confirm.

~~~
rovek
An important lesson in "Don't teach your users to ignore confirmation dialogs"
that all designers need to learn or teach their clients/POs.

~~~
cratermoon
It's far too late for that. Users never read dialog boxes and still don't. If
they do, they don't understand them and click the wrong that. c.f. Raskin, Jef
(2000). The Humane Interface.

------
cratermoon
"new regulations require telecom companies to offer a testing system for local
and state alert originators, but because of lobbying by Verizon and CTIA (a
wireless telecom trade group), this specific regulation does not go into
effect until March 2019, 30 months after the regulations were adopted."

[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kznxde/hawaii-
bal...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kznxde/hawaii-ballistic-
missile-warning-no-testing-system)

------
jstewartmobile
Rather than sloppy UX, this looks more like cover for an evacuation due to
military snafu.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash)

[http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/south-dakota-s-
secret...](http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/south-dakota-s-secret-
nuclear-missile-accident-
revealed/article_92b6722d-9cd5-5551-8831-f61964da70b2.html)

~~~
SyneRyder
The South Dakota 1964 incident sounds a lot like the story This American Life
recently ran, "Human Error In Volatile Situations". Except it turns out that
episode is about an incident in Arkansas in 1980 (but both were primarily
caused by using incorrect tools). [1]

On a side note, the Rapid City Journal supports ad-removal passes via Google
Contributor [2] (ie for 1c they'll remove all the ads on the page). So if you
normally use an ad blocker, you might want to sign up and give them a penny.

[1] [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/634/human-error-in-
volatile...](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/634/human-error-in-volatile-
situations)

[2] [https://contributor.google.com/](https://contributor.google.com/)

------
ninegunpi
I liked the version where Hawaii government was replaced by marionettes under
pressure of nuclear attack, the missile exploded in the air (or was fake from
the very beginning) and the new government refuted that it was a real message
to keep the conspiracy undercover.

Most errors are boring mistakes, tho.

