> Yes they are idiots. Well more likely they were cogs in a dysfunctional bureaucracy that is not allowed to do good work because it doesn't allow common sense to drive decision making. So the 'idiot' here is an organization, maybe, and not a person.

As I said, that turns your argument around: They did not make a bad UI because they are idiots, but rather they are idiots because they made a bad UI. This gives you zero insight to prevent future accidents.

> Yes, the UI was obviously terrible before the accident happened. My first thought when I saw the picture was, wow, that's terrible.

You saw that picture after you already knew that an accident happened. The interesting question is whether your conclusion would have been the same if you saw it without knowing about the accident.

I really suggest that you have a look at the CAST handbook, because every single of your arguments gets taken apart there: http://sunnyday.mit.edu/CAST-Handbook.pdf (also posted in another sub-thread, but this whole HN discussion shows that still too few people know about it)