Information Overload!: Investigating the Usability of an Information Tool for Crisis Situations With Biometric Data

Introduction

During a crisis, information and communications are fundamental aspects of crisis management. Technical advantages in the form of social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, are continuously transforming crisis management and communication (Veil et al., 2011). Likewise, smartphones and widespread internet access are reshaping the way humans connect. Social media offers an inexpensive platform with a global outreach (Wright & Hinson, 2009), and on-site and real time crisis response activities have become an important part of crisis communication (Palen et al., 2007). Social media usage during crisis situations encompasses, among other areas, an assessment of the situation, sense-making, and validation of the information (Palen & Anderson, 2016). Hence, the design of digital platforms for use during crisis situations is an important area of research.

This chapter presents a usability study of a prototype tool intended to support information gathering in crisis situations. The tool is intended to be used during emergencies, helping key communicators monitor and handle social media content from several media outlets in the same workspace. The main aim of the study is to investigate how situation awareness can be optimized for key communicators during emergencies. It does so by taking a mixed method approach on usability testing and by combining emotional responses and cognitive processes (Picard, 2003) to better understand how the user perceives the tool. This study contributes to the field by illustrating the importance of designing for good situation awareness in services/platforms intended for crisis communication.