Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Maya King

Waking up last Saturday morning in Hawaii, many people saw the now-infamous alert on their phone:

EMERGENCY ALERT BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Similar alerts sounded on TV and radio stations throughout the islands, and predictably, chaos ensued.

Tourists fled to underground parking lots in nearby hotels, while locals gathered their loved ones and pets and took shelter in bathrooms, basements, even the sewer system, as others parked inside highway tunnels that cut through the mountains.

Many people called friends and family on the mainland and around the world to say emotional good-byes, while others chose to seize the moment by popping open their best bottle of vintage wine and downing it with chocolate.

38 minutes after the alert went out, an all clear came through:

There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm.

Then the real fallout began

Confusion and worry turned to anger, as people shifted from savoring their final moments on earth to looking for someone to blame for the panic and subsequent chaos.

The state of Hawaii was quick to make a statement under pressure, with Gov. David Y. Ige apologizing for the mistake, saying that “someone clicked the wrong thing on the computer.”

Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi soon followed up by saying that the employee who made the mistake felt terrible for triggering the alarm, but placed the blame squarely on this unidentified employee. Miyagi said the employee answered “yes” when asked by the system if he was sure he wanted to send the message.“It’s human error,” Miyagi said. “There is a screen that says, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’”

News media was quick to jump on the ‘human error’ as the cause of the state-wide panic.

But, is it fair to blame a single employee for clicking the wrong button?

Don Norman, best known for his classic book The Design of Everyday Things and expertise in the fields of design, usability engineering, and cognitive science, was quick to post on Twitter:

Fake missile attack warning? Human error? Nonsense. It’s incompetent design. One wrong click terrorizes the entire state? Why is it possible? I have a book they need to read.

— @jnd1er

Norman has a valid point in his research, that anyone working in the field of user-centered design will recognize:

If we assume that the people who use technology are stupid then we will continue to design poorly conceived equipment, procedures, and software, thus leading to more and more accidents, all of which can be blamed upon the hapless users rather than the root cause — ill-conceived software, ill-conceived procedural requirements, ill-conceived business practices, and ill-conceived design in general.

It is far too easy to blame people when systems fail.

Don Norman, father of UX

As people called for accountability and tried to dissect what happened, screenshots of the internal system used to manage and send the alerts were spread online.

Finally confirmation of what @HawaiiNewsNow has been reporting all along! Despite misconceptions, there’s no red button in a glass case that was mistakenly pushed (twice!) on Saturday leading to the #MissileAlertMistake; here’s what it really looks like https://t.co/qZCuITHlfW

— @MilekaLincoln

The screenshot above was shared by Hawaii News Now reporter Mileka Lincoln and multiple other media outlets.

State officials later discredited the image, instead sharing a mock-up closer to what an HI-EMA employee might see (a true screenshot couldn’t be shared due to security concerns):

The mock-up suggests the real interface is less bad than the first; but still hardly a shining example of good design or clean naming conventions.

While the false alarm was a terrifying reminder of the looming possibility of intercontinental missile attacks and how little time there is to prepare in such an event, it also serves as a wake-up call to the importance of human-centered design on internal systems UI.

The design community has certainly been vocal in the wake of this event, and maybe governments and other large organizations with poorly-designed systems will take heed of their usability research and recommendations, and the true value of a user-centered design experience.

These organizations can take inspiration from some of the multitude of design suggestions on Twitter, or advice on better system for file names. Or, they can pick up a copy of The Design of Everyday Things and start to learn the science behind creating thoughtful designs.

One of my favorite alternative theories 🤔 damn those lazy loading ads!

Missiles, False Alarms, and Bad Design was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Missiles, False Alarms, and Bad Design

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