PS-DET-176 · r1
DETECTION
OBSERVED
ENGAGED
FEEDBACK THAT OCCLUDES
Strong enough to be noticed is strong enough to cover the thing it is about.
01 DEFINITION
Condition in which a confirmation is made prominent so that it cannot be missed, and the prominence takes the part of the surface where the thing being confirmed was, so the operator learns that it happened and loses the place it happened in.
02 CONDITIONS
UNCERTAINTY
MISSING
What was covered while the confirmation was shown is not recorded anywhere.
TIME PRESSURE
HIGH
Confirmations arrive at the rate the events do, which is the rate that made them necessary.
ERROR ASYMMETRY
ASYMMETRIC
Missing a confirmation and missing what it covered are not equivalent failures.
OPERATOR STATE
DEDICATED
The operator is watching this surface, which is why prominence works and why it costs.
03 WHERE IT APPEARS
MEDICALAn alert placed where it cannot be missed is placed over the trace it is alerting about.
INDUSTRIALConfirmation of a completed step covers the part of the panel showing the steps that have not run.
TELECOMEvent notifications sized to be seen occupy the view of the system generating them.
FINANCEExecution confirmations arrive over the book they were executed against, at the rate they were executed.
MANUFACTURINGStation acknowledgements displayed prominently obscure the line state they acknowledge.
DEFENSEConfirmations of resolved items are made unmistakable and cover the region where unresolved ones are.
04 WHAT AEON WORKED THROUGH HERE
Each confirmation had to be unmistakable and many of them arrived at once, so the surface spent more of itself announcing what had finished than showing what had not. The work went into what a confirmation may occupy and for how long, rather than into how visible to make it.
The question it keeps returning to is how something can be certain to be noticed without being certain to interrupt — anything quiet enough to leave the picture intact is quiet enough to be missed by the reader who needed it.