Importance of the design

The Hawaiian false missile alert

 Until humans learn how to command machines with their minds (or vice versa), we're always going to need some sort of menu, control panel or whatever to interact with our machines and tell them to do our jobs for us - Hillabin, Cracked 2012 

Before the AI is developed enough to work without human presence there is always needed those control panels or command-line to the software or device to work. I was searching different kind of disasters that have occurred because of a bad design and there was several of them. Most crucial ones were plane and car crashes. One that got my interest was so called Hawaii Human error even thought the reason wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just bad design that caused the mislick. Usually when bad design or lacking instructions combined pressure is not a good sum of elements.

This Hawaii false missile alert is a good example of a case where a user interface design can do huge misunderstanding and panic for the people. Luckily in this case there wasn’t real danger but a good example that with better design these kind of mistakes could have been prevented too.

“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” 

Alert above was sent to Hawaii citizens on 13.01.2018 and it made people to panic and pack their stuff and run away, even thought nothing was going to happen.

According to Don Norman in FastCompany the system is tested twice a day with the person doing the test selecting the test message from a list. In this case, it is believed, the person accidentally selected the wrong message.

“Someone clicked the wrong thing on the computer” - Richard Rapoza

”Three words that can potentially reframe how we think about solutions that can prevent this kind of accident from happening down the road: BLAME THE DESIGN.” - Melnick, Klick 2018

”The main, elementary design rule is: never do a dangerous (or irreversible) action without requiring confirmation,* ideally by a second person who is separated from the person doing the action.” - Norman, FastCompany 2018

Picture of the list (DTowcFJU0AAvtVo)

Of course it’s easier to blame the person who clicked the button to send the message but in the article there was explained well that problems that poor design construct are mainly poor labeling, disorganization, non-differentiated visual treatments and poorly done error prevention.
When the mistake was noticed they informed the citizens as soon as possible and told that there no missiles coming and everything is alright.
Luckily these kind of "fake"disasters  are also an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and make the softwares that we use better, so we don't repeat them again in the future. Here is also a quick good example how the software used for the warning system could be improved. There could be more clear interface with bright colors and simple easily understandable text(labeling). Another feature can be the double-check part, are you sure ? - if yes please confirm.

Example of improved GUI (5-hawaii.png)

Ugly design saves lives!

Smoking has been a major problem all the time and all around the world. The nicotine in it creates addiction and it's difficult to quit when once started. Australia made great approach towards to discrease the amount of smokers.

They actually made history in 2012 when publishing the new cigarette packs with unappealing color as possible and realistic pictures of the consequences of smoking. The color is called “Opaque Couché” and gives an image of death and filth. The packages are covered with ugly  garish photos of smoking-related illnesses like for example tooth problems, tumors, diseased heart muscle and rotted toes etc. The purpose behind this has been getting people to stop smoking and decrease the purchase amount of the cigarette products.

“It’s an unequivocal message that this is a dangerous product and not a lifestyle product.” - Hammond, University of Waterloo

Cigarette packs before (cigs.jpg)

Smoking packages now smoking_1866776c.jpg

According to the study of Victoria White, Tahlia Williams and Melanie Wakefield, the introduction of plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings changed adolescents’ perceptions of cigarette packs and brands. The new packaging and branding has affected enormously to the opinion of smoking and smokers in general and also for its purchasing numbers around the world. They also stated that seven to 12 months after the introduction of standardized packaging in Australia, the appeal of cigarette packs and brands to adolescents who had seen packs in the previous 6 months had decreased significantly.

Sources:

https://www.cracked.com/article_19776_6-disasters-caused-by-poorly-designed-user-interfaces.html (published 17.04.2012, accessed 28.03.2021)

https://www.klick.com/health/news/blog/user-experience/disaster-due-to-disastrous-design/ (published 26.01.2018, accessed 28.03.2021)

https://www.fastcompany.com/90157153/don-norman-what-went-wrong-in-hawaii-human-error-nope-bad-design (published 16.01.2018, accessed 28.03.2021)

https://www.creativesafetysupply.com/articles/safety-colors/ (published 30.08.2016, accessed 28.03.2021) 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-ugliest-color-could-help-people-quit-smoking-180959364/ (published 09.06.2016, accessed 30.03.2021)

https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/24/Suppl_2/ii42 (published 25.02.2015, accessed 30.03.2021)