Communication interface for virtual training of crisis management

Since crisis management training requires extensive resources, a computer-simulated environment where communication plays a crucial role, can be an effective and efficient way to complement real-life training. With the aim of designing a simplified communication interface for a training simulator, this paper analyzes the complex communication network of crisis management, based on observations of a real-life, large-scale exercise of emergency services. Three research objectives were pursued to reach this goal. The results show that a selection of the most useful communication metaphors suggests that face-to-face and radio should be provided in a virtual environment. Consolidation of the communication groups highlights two groups, namely, the first responders and commanders. And, the analysis of the communication flow identifies different roles and the information flow between and within the groups. With this approach we aim to provide a single, multi-role interface that will be easily scalable and reconfigurable, while saving implementation costs.