Author(s):

Jiang, Xiaodong; Hong, Jason, I. ; Landay, James, A.

Title:

Ubiquitous Computing for Firefighters: Field Studies and Prototypes of Large Displays for Incident Command

Publication:

Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Keywords:

accountability; anthropology; attention; awareness; design guidelines; distraction; ethnographic study; field studies; field studies; interviews; low-fidelity prototypes; naturalistic observation; qualitative research methods; sensing systems; user evaluation

Paper Summary:

In order to design a ubiquitous system for firefighters, the authors wanted to understand what information should be gathered (by sensors), who needs to know about it, and how should it be presented and used. The authors began by observing training exercises, interviewing users and iterating several low-fidelity prototypes.

Based on the field study, the authors identified four design issues to be considered:

1. Accountability of resources and personnel. Should be simple and accurate.
2. Assessment of the situation using multiple sources of information. Avoid information overload
3. Resource allocation is a primary task
4. Communication support should add reliability to ensure the right messages reach the right people

The authors conclude that these design principles can be applied to other emergency and mission-critical applications. The author also present two additional deign guidelines that they believe are applicable for other applications, including minimizing direct interaction and adding redundancy to improve communication and safety.

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