Saving Lives with Design 430
valdean writes "Last year, the White House declassified an August 2001 intelligence brief entitled: 'Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.' Among other things, the brief mentions that Bin Ladin 'wanted to hijack a US aircraft.' So why was it ignored? Graphic designer Greg Storey thinks part of the reason is poor design. He set out to modify the format of the original document into a more legible one."
Re:The spoon explanation. (Score:2, Informative)
Latin Jibberish Generator... probably from iWork.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Latin Jibberish Generator... probably from iWor (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Latin Jibberish Generator... probably from iWor (Score:4, Informative)
Re:hindsight (Score:4, Informative)
it's lorem ipsum [lipsum.com]. basicly filler text that looks like english but wont distract the viewer from the real subject matter (the design)
Re:News for nerds? (Score:2, Informative)
It's fashionable on Slashdot these days to criticize the US. I'd say more but I fear mod retaliation.
Re:Something I've wondered (Score:3, Informative)
Because most photocopiers don't support color? When a document is redacted, the original is first photocopied, then a big black felt is used to redact the sensitive information, then it gets photocopied again before being distributed so that you can't see the original text under the ink. That's also why the declassified documents look so terrible -- the document that results after being degraded by multiple photocopies is the one which gets printed.
Design (Score:2, Informative)
No where in TFA does it say that "Design could have prevented 9/11".
Usability is something which can help. Think about hospital steps. If there is a ramp there, it helps people with wheelchairs get up there. Sure, ramps don't go around saving lives by throwing themselves over bombs or anything, but they do help by helping people use the facility.
Now - look at the two different documents. What is lost by using the second one? All the information stays the same. What one does is to visually cue a person, providing easy ways to categorise the document without even reading it.
You disagree?
Try reading the same post as above, with a slight modification. Spacing doesn't save lives. Does it?
NowIdon'texpecteveryoneon/.tobestupid,butIdon't
So what you mean to say is.. (Score:2, Informative)
PS. Also not that this redesign is A YEAR old.
Edward Tufte links (Score:1, Informative)
Re:hindsight (Score:4, Informative)
So that's why this is news over a year later. The TFA is dated "11 April 04". Slashdot: all the old news, dupes and hoaxes fit to print.
Anyway, it doesn't matter how the information was presented. Bush DOESN'T READ these reports. [guardian.co.uk] He has his staff read them to him and summarise; even the one page format, which seemed like a dumbing down when Reagan did it, is too much detail for him.
Revisionism (Score:4, Informative)
Further:
In other words, it's not that they didn't realize what the memos said, but at the time, the memos did not amount to compelling evidence of the threat we now know was coming.
Now, you can feel free to disagree with the 9/11 Commission. But to say as a statement of fact that it was ignored is, well, ignoring the evidence (and inventing new evidence).