INTRODUCTION TO TRACK:

Responding to natural or man-made disasters, in a timely and effective manner, can reduce deaths and injuries, contain or prevent secondary disasters, and reduce the resulting economic losses and social disruption. Throughout the last few decades, agencies managing disasters adopted technology based systems to enhance the performance of their operations. However, trust towards technology based systems to manage disasters remain low. The primary concern with regard to existing disaster management systems is not a lack of information, but of finding what is really needed and when it is needed but more importantly how and in which form this information should be presented or disseminate to the end-user.  In order to design and develop appropriate and usable systems for all four phases of disaster management there is a strong need for correlation between the accuracy, timeliness, and reliability of the information available to the decision makers, and the level of integration of Situation Awareness (SA) into all phases of emergency management. Poor SA often led to human error and inferior decision making.  Inadequate ability to provide required level of SA for the end-users engage in different phases of an emergency is still considered to be the primary challenge faced in the design and development project life cycle of disaster/emergency management systems. This phenomenon is repeatedly reiterated in the aftermath reports of most of the recent disasters.

This is where the approach of Human Centred Design could help to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, usability knowledge, and techniques. This approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency, improves human well-being, user satisfaction, accessibility and sustainability; and counteracts possible adverse effects of use, safety and performance.

TRACK OBJECTIVES:

The Co- chairs of this track invite academics, researchers and professionals to share innovative research, practice and experience showcasing user centred design driven design, development and implementation of systems supporting management of crisis /disaster /emergency management. In particular, Co-chairs of the track encourage submissions that address needs and issues on: user acceptance, trust and experience, usability, human computer interaction, situation awareness, relevant for all four phases of the disaster management cycle; readiness, reduction, response and recovery.

TRACK EXAMPLE TOPICS:

• User experience of disaster information systems
• Information Systems prototype/research
• Exercise scenarios
• User Acceptance
• Usability
• Sharing of Situational Awareness to enhance the common operating picture

TRACK CO-CHAIRS:

Raj Prasanna - Coordinating Track Co-Chair
Massey University, New Zealand
[email protected]

Lili Yang
Loughborough University, UK
[email protected]

Deborah Bunker
University of Sydney, Australia
[email protected]