[sbe-eas] UI is hard: Why did Floridians wake up to an early-morning emergency alert?

[Sean Donelan]

The lowest paid person working the overnight shift doesn't get to make 
those decisions.  He or she gets fired for not sending the alert on-time, 
every time.

The senior executive which made the decision about budgets, policies,
purchasing and training was home asleep.

The RMT message sent at 4:51 a.m. does not match the WEA message.  The 
4:51 message included the BLOCKCHANNEL parameter CMAS, which means it 
wouldn't be forwarded to WEA channel.

I'm assuming two different messages sent, but I haven't found the 
corresponding WEA message yet. It takes 24 hours to show up in the FEMA 
IPAWS archive.


On Thu, 20 Apr 2023, Rob Dale wrote:
> The missing PBS is strange…
>
> In any event - if it’s overly complicated then you REALLY need to spend the money on training and instilling confidence in those pressing the “send” button.
>
> Or find a different vendor.
>
> But this was a planned test. You have PLENTY of time to go through the checklist and ensure that the final result looks like what it’s supposed to look like before pressing send. Or don’t even press send and wait for the day shift if necessary.
>
> Rob
>
>> On Apr 20, 2023, at 4:29 PM, Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I haven't found the 4:45 alert in warn.pbs.org.  It will be 24 hours before it appears in the FEMA alert archive.
>> 
>> Hawaii fired a person in 2018 for sending an alert.  Problem solved?
>> 
>> The alert origination software used by Florida DEM has a complicated user interface which makes it very easy to accidently miss a checkbox and overly long drop downs with critical and insignificant settings adjacent.
>> 
>> We know how to do User Interface design in critical systems (Nuclear, Medical, etc.)  But good U.I. costs development money, and WEA alert software is low-bid software.
>> 
>> 
>>> On Thu, 20 Apr 2023, Rob Dale wrote:
>>> What is the flaw in the software? When given a selection, someone decided to
>>> choose Civil Emergency Message and not Required Monthly Test.
>>> That’s a big miss 😊