Add spacing and then add more. It won't make it a masterpiece but it'll prevent misclicks and make the UI easier to read and understand.
Also, use headings like "Amber Alerts", "Weather" and "War".
And, use semantic titles like "[TEST] Tsunami" or "ALERT! - Tsunami"
The screenshots are so bad, not even the juniors I work with would consider deploying this. It's mind boggling.
Not defending the UI too much but I'm imagining this is something built and deployed on government contract in the late 90s or early 2000s (when it was considered high technology that they could do this from a web page in the first place?), occasionally migrated to whatever marginally newer system is required by law while consuming the minimal amount of funding.
It's a damn shame but a lot of govt. stuff ends up in this exact boat because nobody wants to pay to improve something that "already works."
Make all tests blue, all real alerts red. A tiny and simple change, but makes such a difference.
EDIT: I decided to create a mockup with only tiny changes:
1. the current version https://s3.kuschku.de/public/01_current.PNG
2. Color-coding added https://s3.kuschku.de/public/02_colors.PNG - already a significant change, with only one line of CSS
3. Semi-Sorted into groups, and always moved drills to the top of the group (so a person searching top-to-bottom finds the drill first): https://s3.kuschku.de/public/03_sorted.PNG
The result is done with 3 lines of CSS, and an additional class on each link. Tiny change, costs you a single-digit dollar amount to implement, and can be so much more effective.
And for certain actions (such as deleting a file or letting a population know an IBCM is coming at them), it could be a good idea to add a msgbox asking "are you sure you want to ? [yes] [cancel]" ^^
I still can't believe how terrible it is.
It has the same feel as a dropdown on a blog.
Nothing of the level of severity is presented. I'd expect such a serious button to be part of a well designed dashboard.
Plus I'd expect it to be an actual button, with colours.
The section of test systems should be separated with distance from live systems.
Developers are designers, some just don't know it.