Who’s Really on First? A Domain-Level User, Task and Context Analysis for Response Technology

This paper presents a domain-level user, task and context analysis for response technology, based on sociological studies of disaster and disaster response. The analysis examines three dimensions of disasterscale, kind and anticipabilitythat have been linked to differences in response characteristics, including differences in individual and organizational responders and behaviors. It yields a number of implications for design, and reveals five domainspecific design requirements. It also offers systematic characterizations of users, tasks and contexts of response technology, that begin to structure the user interface design space, laying a foundation for a theory of design. This work provides a conceptual basis to help researchers and designers recognize and address possible limitations of design decisions, leading, ultimately, to more usable and effective response technologies.