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The Psychology of Alert Design

The Psychology of Alert Design

It's 3:37am. Your phone starts buzzing. It doesn't stop. 1000s of alerts. All the things are broken. Where do you even begin?

You freeze.

The infrastructure we're operating are increasingly complex and nuanced. Events at one edge can have unintended and unpredictable effects on the other, and there is no obvious causal relationship. This makes debugging failure hard.

Good alert design is important to lowering the MTTR when our complex infrastructures fail, but what constitutes a "good alert"? Our brains work in unexpected ways, with cognitive biases and priming skewing our perception of reality. It's vitally important to understand how we think and react under pressure when designing alerts and communicating failure.

In this talk, Lindsay will showcase some of the psychological underpinnings you should take into account when designing your alerts, how other industries handle alert design, and what tools are available to increase your operational effectiveness in the face of massive failures today.

Sources used to create this talk:

- http://www.columbiadisaster.info/images/foam_debris_548x627.jpg
- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Impact-test.jpg
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94J9oVeST0k
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oBTzbKx0jo
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/frostnova/2268471558
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/buttim/1297081125
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsairpics/8318261080
- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Map_Tenerife_Disaster_EN.svg/2000px-Map_Tenerife_Disaster_EN.svg.png
- http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/LSPkRMbyrGc/maxresdefault.jpg
- http://awesomestories.com/images/user/9add18ae4d.jpg
- http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/rh/RH_Fluency_2008.pdf
- http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/07/final-air-france-447-report-pilots-misunderstood-their-situation/54209/
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020136/Pierre-Cedric-Bonin-David-Robert-blamed-Atlantic-Ocean-Air-France-crash-killed-228.html
- http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/05/world/europe/france-air-crash-report/index.html
- http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/af447-final-report.html
- http://gizmodo.com/5923866/air-france-447-crash-a-result-of-crew-ignoring-alarms
- http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/af447-inquiry-grapples-with-stall-warning-enigma-373857/
- http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/content/112/1/78.long
- http://www.used-equipment-medical.com/th_sogemed/medias/big/moniteur-drager-kappa-xlt-infinity.jpg
- http://img.medicalexpo.com/pdf/repository_me/68268/zeus-infinity-empowered-83059_5b.jpg
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/5646121120
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/digital-noise/3650559857
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arterial_kateter.jpg
- http://drugline.org/img/term/venous-catheter-central-15887_1.jpg
- http://riemann.io/howto.html#group-events-in-time

Lindsay Holmwood

September 19, 2013
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Transcript

  1. foam debris broke off the space shuttle's external tank struck

    left wing http://www.columbiadisaster.info/images/foam_debris_548x627.jpg
  2. Pattern matching Heuristics are simple, efficient rules often used by

    people to form judgements and make decisions. Involve focusing on specific information, and ignoring others. http://www.flickr.com/photos/buttim/1297081125/sizes/o
  3. people need an average of 4 prompts before they take

    action "this truly can't be happening, everything will be ok"
  4. • Response: people need an average of 4 prompts before

    they take action "this truly can't be happening, everything will be ok"
  5. • Response: • slow reaction people need an average of

    4 prompts before they take action "this truly can't be happening, everything will be ok"
  6. • Response: • slow reaction • seek validation people need

    an average of 4 prompts before they take action "this truly can't be happening, everything will be ok"
  7. • Response: • slow reaction • seek validation • optimistic

    interpretation people need an average of 4 prompts before they take action "this truly can't be happening, everything will be ok"
  8. FINAL FOLIOS SEEM TO RESULT FROM YEARS OF DUTIFUL STUDY

    OF TEXTS ALONG WITH YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE.
  9. FINAL FOLIOS SEEM TO RESULT FROM YEARS OF DUTIFUL STUDY

    OF TEXTS ALONG WITH YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE.
  10. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k
  11. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k
  12. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  13. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  14. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  15. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  16. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  17. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  18. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
  19. • a • b • c • d • e

    *boom* f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Complexity
  20. • a • b • c • d • q

    n e f h i j k l m o p r s t u v w x y z g
  21. • a • b • c • d • n

    e f h i j k l m o p r s t u v w x y z g *boom*
  22. • a • b • c • d • n

    f h i k m o p r s t u v w x y z g *boom* *boom* *boom* *boom*
  23. • a • b • c • d • n

    f h i k m o p r s t u v w x y z g *boom* *boom* *boom* *boom* this is alerting
  24. • Final Air France 447 Report: Pilots misunderstood their situation

    • Poorly-trained pilots to blame for Air France crash that killed 228 • Final Air France crash report says pilots failed to react swiftly • Air France 447 downed as crew ignored alarms • Air France 447 crash a result of crew ignoring alarms http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/07/final-air-france-447-report-pilots- misunderstood-their-situation/54209/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020136/Pierre-Cedric-Bonin-David-Robert- blamed-Atlantic-Ocean-Air-France-crash-killed-228.html http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/05/world/europe/france-air-crash-report/index.html http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/07/af447-final-report.html http://gizmodo.com/5923866/air-france-447-crash-a-result-of-crew-ignoring-alarms
  25. "In an aural environment that was already saturated by the

    C-chord warning, the possibility that the crew did not identify the stall warning cannot be ruled out" - BEA report on AF447 http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/af447-inquiry-grapples-with-stall-warning- enigma-373857/
  26. The Wolf Is Crying in the Operating Room: Patient Monitor

    and Anesthesia Workstation Alarming Patterns During Cardiac Surgery Schmid F, Goepfert M, et al, Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2010 http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/content/112/1/78.long
  27. central venous pressure was measured with a central venous catheter

    http://drugline.org/img/term/venous-catheter-central-15887_1.jpg
  28. $ check_check.rb -s solrserver OK=27 WARNING=0 CRITICAL=1 UNKNOWN=0 services=/solrserver/ hosts=//

    Services in CRITICAL: frontend1.example.com => solrserver client tests
  29. • a • b • c • d • q

    n e f h i j k l m o p r s t u v w x y z g @abestanway's talk: https://speakerdeck.com/astanway/mom-my-algorithms-suck
  30. • a • b • c • d • q

    n e f h i j k l m o p r s t u v w x y z g @abestanway's talk: https://speakerdeck.com/astanway/mom-my-algorithms-suck
  31. • a • b • c • d • q

    n e f h i j k l m o p r s t u v w x y z g we alerts now @abestanway's talk: https://speakerdeck.com/astanway/mom-my-algorithms-suck