Monthly Archives: February 2017

In a fit of productivity, I did my taxes early this year. They were a bit more complex than usual, so I set aside some time to click through TurboTax and make sure I got everything right. Throughout the process, the online tax-preparation program repeatedly reassured me that it had helped me identify every possible tax deduction I qualify for, and made sure I didnt make any mistakes. Attractively animated progress bars filled up while I waited for TurboTax to double- and triple-check my returns.

But as I watched one particularly slick animation, which showed a virtual tax form lighting up line by lineyellow or greenI wondered if what I was seeing actually reflected the progress of a real task being tackled in the background. Did it really take that long to look over every detail of my returns, which is what the page said it was doing? Hadnt TurboTax been checking my work as we went?

I sat down with my colleague Andrew McGill to figure out what was going on in the background. We combed through the source code powering TurboTaxs website, and soon confirmed my suspicion: The animation was fixed. It didnt appear to be communicating with the sites servers at all once it began playingand every TurboTax user saw the same one, which always took the same amount of time to complete. (The same went for at least one other page which purported to show the progress of TurboTaxs checks for every possible tax break with three animated bars.)

But why? Why misrepresent how long it takes to complete a process, and take up unnecessary time doing so?

Its not because TurboTax delights in messing with its clients. Instead, the sites artificial wait times are an example of what Eytan Adar, a professor of information and computer science at the University of Michigan, calls benevolent deception. In a paper he published in 2013 with a pair of Microsoft researchers, Adar described a wide range of design decisions that trick their usersbut end up leaving them better off.

Benevolent deceptions can hide uncertainty (like when Netflix automatically loads default recommendations if it doesnt have the bandwidth to serve personalized ones), mask system hiccups to smooth out a users experience (like when a progress bar grows at a consistent rate, even if the process its visualizing is stuttering), or help people get used to a new form of technology (like the artificial static that Skype plays during quiet moments in a conversation to convince users the call hasnt been dropped).

The word deception has a negative connotation, and lying to users is generally frowned upon. But Adar says its actually a useful, beneficial tool if deployed correctlyand that designers have been tricking their users for years, even if they preferred not to think of it that way.

Curiously, the case of the TurboTax animations is a departure from most of the deceptive practices Adar studied: Rather than covering up a system slowdown, its introducing one. The delay, it turns out, is meant to build customers confidence in the product to which they just entrusted all their financial information.

The process of completing a tax return often has at least some level of stress and anxiety associated with it, said Rob Castro, a spokesperson for TurboTaxs parent company, Intuit. To offset these feelings, we use a variety of design elementscontent, animation, movement, etc.to ensure our customers peace of mind that their returns are accurate and they are getting all the money they deserve.

Adar made a similar decision in a game he designed as an experiment nearly two decades ago. The game, which involved two people negotiating on a price on two separate mobile devices, culminated in a complex step: Both participants bids were encrypted, transmitted wirelessly, and compared, and a software program would show whether or not a deal could be reached.

Despite its complexity, this step was nearly instantaneous in the games first iteration. But the speed confused people. Their reaction was, Wow, was that it? Adar said. That was sort of a bummer for us. He devised a tweak: Instead of happening immediately, the final step launched launched an onscreen animation, which took over the screen with asterisks

The security theater appeared to work. Their delight seemed to increaseand maybe their confidence as well, Adar said. (The difference was anecdotal; the researchers never formally tested participants reactions.)

Although designers dont always like to talk about it, the practice of building in artificial waits isnt uncommon. Last year, Fast Companys Mark Wilson discovered that Facebook uses the same trick on its safety page. He turned up other examples, too: a loan-approval app that builds suspense before delivering results to avoid making customers suspicious, and a site for delivering personalized phone-plan recommendations that slowed down its response time in order to convince users they were actually getting custom results. Examples abound on Twitter, like this progress bar on a Verizon webpage thats just a timer.

Wilson cited a 2011 paper from a pair of Harvard professors that studied this effectthey named it the labor illusionin detail. They found that websites that made their operations look easy were actually less satisfying to consumers. When websites engage in operational transparency by signaling that they are exerting effort, people can actually prefer websites with longer waits to those that return instantaneous results, they wrote. Even when those results are identical.

But not every benevolent deception is designed to make people think the system theyre interacting with is in total control. One trick in particular injected uncertainty into a visual representation of dataand triggered near-heart attacks across the country.

The online election-day dashboard on The New York Times included a set of three dials across the top, displaying the newspapers best guess at Hillary Clinton and Donald Trumps shares of the popular vote, their electoral college votes, and their chance at winning the presidency. Throughout the night, the needle on each of the gauges danced and wiggled, starting in what appeared to be deep Clinton territory and ending, well after midnight, squarely on a Trump victory.

The needles were in constant motionback and forth, back and forthadding to the anxiety of the moment. A few enterprising readers dug into the pages source code, found that the needles were jiggling randomly, and let out their rage on Twitter. More than one person used the word irresponsible.

Gregor Aisch, one of the Times designers behind the election dashboard, justified the needles quiver on his blog the following week. The needle only wandered within the margin of error of the forecast at any given moment, Aisch explained. The movement was designed to emphasize the live, ever-changing nature of the forecast, while visualizing the uncertainty included in the models output. The forecast became more precise as the night wore on, and so the needle jittered less and less.

I asked Aisch whether the blowback to the anxiety-inducing dials made him to reconsider any of his teams decisions. It didnt. The visualization accurately depicted what it was meant to, he said, and hed use a similar tactic if he were designing the dashboard again. The negative response may have really been misdirected anger at the vote tally, he predicted. During election night, we were simply the first ones to destroy the hopes of a lot of people, Aisch said. Hence, we took the fire.

The one thing Aisch said hed do differently is not to display each candidates chance of winning as a percentage. To most, he said, an 80 percent chance of a Clinton win seemed like a home run, when it fact, her victory was far from certain. Nobody would ever trust contraceptives if their chance of failure was one in five, but we made many people believe that Clinton had a clear advantage, Aisch said.

When Twitter users pulled away the curtain and Aischs deception was revealed, some felt theyd been maliciously tricked. A deception, after all, works best when its deceiving people.

I asked Adar if there was a point at which deception crosses from benevolent to malevolent. He set down three ground rules: Designers should prefer non-deceptive solutions to problems, their deceptions should measurably improve the product, and the userif askedshould prefer the deceptive solution. (Of course, most designers wont have the chance to ask their users whether or not they want to be tricked, so they have to make that call on their own.)

But a deception thats beneficial to a user doesnt necessarily have to set the designer back. In fact, Adar says, a good deception usually benefits everyone involved: Happier users keep coming back to useand perhaps pay fora well-designed service.

Take the TurboTax example. Its design touches may make customers less stressed during tax season, and make them feel better about their finances. They, in turn, will come back and keep paying for the service every year.

But TurboTax has another incentive to keep the process from moving as quickly as possible. Its service is a friendly guide through the thorny jungle of credits, benefits, deductions, and forms that Americans must tromp through every year, and its in Intuits best interest to make that jungle seem as thorny and inhospitable as possible. The company regularly lobbies to keep the complicated U.S. tax code in place, and opposes proposals that would radically simplify it.

So a few extra seconds of animations that make you feel like TurboTax is slaving away diligently on your returns is sure to make you feel betterbut it also keeps you in awe of what Intuits software is doing. When, at the end, it asks you to fork over 50 or 100 bucks for the effort, those few seconds might make pulling out your credit card a little easier.

Excerpt from:

Why Some Apps Use Fake Progress Bars - The Atlantic

SAN JOS, Costa Rica Any worries about a shock early exit for the Americans at the 2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship were dispelled with a three-goal second half in the 4-1 victory over Haiti on Tuesday.

But despite the daylight in the winning margin, this was certainly a grind for the US U-20s as they picked up a much-needed three points.

Certainly, we were affected by the first loss we didnt expect. But when the boys come down here and participate in the tournament, [they] realize that actually every win down here is difficult, said head coach Tab Ramos afterward. Even the wins like tonight, when you see the scores at the end it takes a lot of work to get to that point in games, and I think the boys are starting to figure that out.

The Americans held the bulk of the possession in the first half, but they were lacking in the final third as their passing wasnt as sharp as required.

After erasing Haitis early lead from the penalty spot, Brooks Lennons first of three goals on the night, a burst of pace really started to affect Haiti, leading to openings the US could exploit.

The one thing we said at halftime was we wanted to play the ball a bit faster, said Ramos. I think at times, we played so slowly that it sort of gave Haiti opportunity to set themselves and defend well and not give us any space to penetrate. In the second half, we started to play the ball forward quickly and break lines. We found it easier to get opportunities.

With the three points in the bag and arguably the easiest game of the group coming up on Friday against St. Kitts & Nevis, qualification to the second group stage looks to be just about in the bag. But Ramos team cannot look past any team in this competition, especially after what happened against Panama.

After the attacking outburst that earned them victory on Tuesday, the Americans feel that first loss was an aberration that is behind them, and that theyre growing into the competition.

Were going to progress every game that we play here, and get better and better every time we step on the field, said Lennon, a Real Salt Lake academy product currently on loan with RSL from Liverpool FC. I think we just need to keep playing together and keep moving forward and well get wins.

We knew what had to be done today and we got it done. Now we look forward to St. Kitts.

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US U-20s vow to "progress every game" after key qualifying win over Haiti - MLSsoccer.com

Commuter railroads have made some progress installing a potentially life-saving train technology, though they still have a long way to go, according to new analysis from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).

The improvement comes as the commuter railroad industry has lagged behind the efforts of freight railroads in implementing positive train control (PTC), which automatically slows down a train that is going over the speed limit and will eventually be required by law.

As of the end of last year, 30 percent of passenger rail locomotives and cab cars are equipped with PTC, up from 29 percent in the first half of 2016. Meanwhile, 50 percent of the necessary PTC radio towers have been erected, up from 46 percent.

The APTA analysis was based on responses from the groups members and quarterly reports from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

"The commuter rail industry continues to make significant progress in implementing positive train control, said Richard A. White, the APTAs acting president and CEO. "The progress on this complex safety technology demonstrates the industry's relentless focus on safety."

Congress had originally given commuter and freight railroads until the end of 2015 to install the technology, which can prevent derailments, collisions, crashes and improper track switching. But as railroads struggled to meet compliance deadlines, lawmakers pushed back the implementation date to at least Dec. 31, 2018.

Recent deadly train crashes including a speeding New Jersey Transit train that slammed into Hoboken Terminal have stepped up pressure on railroads.

The APTA data show that commuter railroads across the country still have a long way to go in adopting positive train control, in part because of the steep cost of the technology.

BNSF Railway, a top freight railroad in the U.S.,has even called on Congressto help passenger railroads get into compliance. As a freight railroad, it may sound out of line, but I actually urge Congress to fund passenger commuter rail funding for positive train control, Matthew Rose, executive chairman of BNSF, told a Senate panel last week.

I cant imagine a more difficult train wreck for us to have to go to where we have the positive train control on the freight rail, and the passenger or commuter train didnt because of lack of funding.

PTC implementation is projected to cost the commuter rail industry more than $3.5 billion in capital expenses and $100 million annually in additional maintenance costs, the APTA said.

Since 2008, Congress has doled out over $650 million in federal grants for installing the technology, as well as a nearly $1 billion loan to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to the FRA.

"The installation of PTC is challenging for a number of reasons, including from a technical perspective. PTC was not a mature technology when Congress mandated it in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008," said White.

"Beyond the technological challenges that have to be addressed, there are significant issues in regard to the costs, scarce qualified resources, and adequate access to track and locomotives for installation and testing."

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Commuter railroads make progress installing life-saving tech - The Hill

The Ghana midfielder was a second half substitute as the Madrid team defeated Bayer Leverkusen on the road

Thomas Parteywas sent in to shore up the midfield and protect the advantage asAtletico MadriddefeatedBayer Leverkusen4-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

The 71st minute substitution was the second appearance for the 23-year-old Ghanaian midfielder in this seasons competition.

The visitors took the lead with a well struck left-footed shot by Saul into the back post on 17 minutes as they started the game with a lot of confidence which brought early opportunities.

They doubled their lead on 25 minutes when Antoine Griezmann found himself freed by Kevin Gameiro who kept two defenders busy, and the French striker coolly slotted home.

The hosts got one back through Karim Bellarabi three minutes after the break but Gameiro restored the two goal cushion soon after when he won and converted a penalty in a terrific man of the match performance.

Coach Diego Simeone sent on Partey in place of Gameiro to shore up the midfield and keep their advantage soon after they conceded an own goal after goalkeeper Angel Moya tipped a save onto the knee of Stefan Savic.

Substitute Fernando Torres then scored a header four minutes from time to ensure they took a two goal cushion to Madrid for the return leg in a fortnight.

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Thomas Partey's Atletico take big step towards UCL progress - Goal.com

Cyrus Moulton Telegram & Gazette Staff @MoultonCyrus

WORCESTER - A black man may have been elected twice to the White House, but activist Nyle Fort told an audience at Worcester State University on Tuesday that the struggle for racial equality in America continues.

Racism, more than anything is a system of injustice, Mr. Fort told about 20 students and community members at Worcester State. We still live in a knowingly not just racial, but racist society.

Mr. Fort, 27, is a youth pastor, freelance writer and grass-roots community organizer based in Newark, New Jersey, as well as a masters of divinity candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary.He visited Worcester State Tuesday for a talk entitled "Black in America - Race, Protest and Democracy,' which he combined with a lengthy question-and-answer session.

Mr. Fort said most people think of racism as overt; involving the Ku Klux Klan and nooses. But he said racism in modern society is much more subtle and deeply rooted throughout American institutions - including in economics, healthcare, housing, academia, and a criminal justice system where 2.7 million people are imprisoned, including 1 million blacks, a disproportional rate.

And nobody - even the most racially sensitive - are immune to these institutions.

If the American empire is burning, all our clothes are burning, Mr. Fort said.

But he said students have the opportunity to bring about equality.

Mr. Fort noted that it was black students who organized sit-ins at segregated lunch counters during the civil rights era. Protests in Ferguson, Missouri, were led by young activists, and the rise of African-American studies in higher education was driven by black students, he said.

There have always been particular opportunities for college students, Mr. Fort said. Use the resources of institutions for social change.

And students and community members had lots of questions about how to bring about this social change.

Asked about how to combat inherent - albeit not willful - white privilege, Mr. Fort urged students to recognize that white supremacy or racism not only is bad for blacks but for all. He noted that not all Flint, Michigan, residents are black and that not all whites who embraced the Confederacy benefited under the unjust institution of slavery.Rather, in seeking to explain why many poor whites have historically voted against their own self interests, Mr. Fort called racism a disease ... that will make people do things that are bad for them, willfully.

Asked whether he espoused integration or segregation, Mr. Fort said integration holds the state responsible for equality and provides for multi-racial solidarity and coalition building. But he also said its goal is to give people access to a problematic pie.

He also spoke fondly of attending Morehouse College, a historically black college, which exposed him to the vastness of black life. But he also said such segregated institutions were problematic for very pragmatic reasons.

Attendee Martin Marinos, an instructor of global studies at Worcester State, said he appreciated how Mr. Fort spoke both of racial identity and economic inequality.

Its an important thing to know your identity, Mr. Marinos said. But you shouldnt ignore the broader issue of economic inequality. ... You shouldnt lose sight of the bigger picture.

As for Mr. Fort, he said after the talk that he hoped students understand and wrestle with how entrenched racism is in American society, despite signs of progress.

Though we have a black face in a high place, the masses of black people are still suffering from racism, Mr. Fort said.

And he hoped he inspired students to do something about this.

Students in particular have the capacity to resist racism and to re-imagine society, Mr. Fort said. We together - not one individual, not one messiah, not one Dr. King - can come together and actually do something. Because racism is not God made, it is man-made.

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Worcester State speaker: Symbolic progress but racism remains - Worcester Telegram