Image of Screen That Led to Hawaii’s Mistaken Ballistic Missile Alert. I’m not going to mock an interface that was obviously done by someone who might have a few other important things on their plate, but this is an incredibly misleading design. Thank God you can only send mobile alerts from here and not, you know, actual missiles.

A practical, real example for why you should start your interface designs by focusing on the words.

Aside: Although the correction took too long to get out, I thought the message on Hawaii’s digital highway signs, “missile alert / in error / there is no threat” was particularly terse and efficient.

Correction: The State of Hawaii is saying the original screenshot shared with the media was only meant as an example. The actual screen can’t be shared due to security concerns, but the state emergency agency has since provided a “more accurate” example, which you can see in Marcel Honore’s piece for the Honolulu Civil Beat. Looking at both images, and assuming they’re close to the original interface, I think my comment of “incredibly misleading” still stands.

Tuesday, 16 January 2018