Usability Evaluation of Mobile Weather Hazard Alert Applications

Abstract

Cell phones enable us to receive and respond to critical incidents, such as: severe storms, tornadoes, and flash floods. However, due to the small display size of cell phones, and regardless of simplified symbols or alert messages, it is possible to overlook users’ ability to interact with the available features and understand the messages in a timely manner. Untrained and trained users of the Weather Radio application participated in an experiment to perform three search tasks; (task 1: location search, task 2: alert settings, and task 3: map settings). In task 4, they evaluated two types of weather alert messages: original National Weather Service (NWS) messages vs. filtered (proposed) messages. By recording users’ completion time on the search tasks, the results showed that the time of the typing in text bar method for task 1 was significantly less than the pin on map method, while much more time was required to complete tasks 2 and 3 by the untrained users compared to the trained users. It was also revealed that the proposed messages were more effective than the original messages by both user groups. This research of user-centered designs provides a foundation to support the designs of time-critical mobile alert systems.

Users’ Perceptions of Smartphone Weather Applications’ Usability

“…First, weather app developers should employ the UCD approach and think of formatting the alert messages from the end-user perspective. Based on the quantitative research findings from Khamaj & Kang (2018), as well as the qualitative research findings presented in this article, the alert messages (that are broadcasted by the NWS to the weather apps) should go through a filtration process before they reach the end-user. Examples of the actions that can be implemented in the filtration process are: 1) removing the geographical area codes for the locations under alerts and including only location names, 2) including information about the user's saved location and the nearby under-alert locations on the main message screen; information regarding all other affected locations could be included on a secondary screen that can be accessed if the user taps a relevant icon from the main message screen, and 3) using appropriate and easy language that considers the differences in users' characteristics (e.g.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, little work has been done on the usability evaluation of weather apps developed for smartphones. Two recent studies conducted by Khamaj & Kang (2018) and Drogalis et al, (2015) tested the usability of smartphone weather apps using quantitative metrics. The present study aims to add more breadth to the literature and support the findings from previous research by qualitatively investigating users' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors towards the usability of weather apps.…”

User-Centered Design (UCD) of Time-Critical Weather Alert Application

“…Numerous studies have focused on age differences in the use of smartphone apps in various fields, including information technology [6], healthcare [7], and communication [8]. However, to our knowledge, there are limited studies on usability testing of weather apps [9,10], and no one has applied user-centered design (UCD) to include a wide range of users, especially elderly. Drogalis et al [10] identified usability issues with weather alert applications, such as the inclusion of hidden map menus that required prior counterintuitive actions and the lack of feedback on actions that were performed.…”

“…Drogalis et al [10] identified usability issues with weather alert applications, such as the inclusion of hidden map menus that required prior counterintuitive actions and the lack of feedback on actions that were performed. Khamaj and Kang [9] investigate usability issues such as poor visualization of critical weather information, inappropriate language usage in time-critical alert messages, and inefficient location search functionality. However, neither of the two studies mentioned above addresses the question of how to effectively meet users' issues and needs.…”