The Crisps and Pickle Story: What's Really Behind Infamous, Historic UI Failures?
summary
Small interface choices plus process gaps cause outsized harm: a single cash-register crisps-and-pickle button (78–79% personal failure rate) and a 25‑character online note limit force unwanted pickles; an emergency-alert dropdown error sends a false missile warning that sits live for 38 minutes; a Three Mile Island control-room light reports a command sent (not valve state) amid 52 simultaneous alarms in 1979 nearly triggers meltdown; a confusing “butterfly” paper ballot decides a presidential result in 2000; a deliberately user‑tested hospital intranet, by contrast, succeeds in real use.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Crisps and Pickle story intro
- 3:17Jason's Deli pickle problem
- 11:57Hawaii missile alert UI flaws
- 23:39Three Mile Island interface failures
- 32:562000 US election ballot disaster
- 40:24Crisps and pickle button reason
- 44:42Small UI issues big impacts
- 47:54Why software matters
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