TY - GEN
T1 - Human-Centric Design in Applications for Emergency Preparedness and Response in Rural Communities
T2 - 24th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research - Together in the Unstable World: Digital Government and Solidarity, DGO 2023
AU - Prasad, Aryamala
AU - Gascó-Hernández, Mila
AU - Gil-Garcia, J. Ramon
AU - Yuan, Qianli
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 ACM.
PY - 2023/7/11
Y1 - 2023/7/11
N2 - Scholars and practitioners are adopting human-centric design (HCD) to more effectively develop digital tools in the public sector. HCD is an iterative approach to problem-solving, focused on bringing together user needs, technological feasibility, and economic viability. Despite gaining popularity in other contexts, there are only few empirical studies on the application of the HCD approach in the public sector. We examine the case of the E!App, a smartphone application for emergency preparedness and response in Upstate New York, to understand the extent to which HCD improves technology adoption and identify some of the challenges associated with using HCD in the development of digital tools. Four focus group discussions and 12 interviews reveal that using the HCD approach facilitates the adoption of digital tools among users when their inputs are fully incorporated into the design. However, it is not always possible to include user inputs in the development of digital tools. More specifically, practical concerns related to inconsistent user feedback, technical feasibility, and long-term consequences of design choices create challenges in the design and development of digital tools.
AB - Scholars and practitioners are adopting human-centric design (HCD) to more effectively develop digital tools in the public sector. HCD is an iterative approach to problem-solving, focused on bringing together user needs, technological feasibility, and economic viability. Despite gaining popularity in other contexts, there are only few empirical studies on the application of the HCD approach in the public sector. We examine the case of the E!App, a smartphone application for emergency preparedness and response in Upstate New York, to understand the extent to which HCD improves technology adoption and identify some of the challenges associated with using HCD in the development of digital tools. Four focus group discussions and 12 interviews reveal that using the HCD approach facilitates the adoption of digital tools among users when their inputs are fully incorporated into the design. However, it is not always possible to include user inputs in the development of digital tools. More specifically, practical concerns related to inconsistent user feedback, technical feasibility, and long-term consequences of design choices create challenges in the design and development of digital tools.
KW - digital government
KW - emergency information
KW - Human-centered design
KW - mobile app
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167870885&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3598469.3598512
DO - 10.1145/3598469.3598512
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85167870885
T3 - ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
SP - 380
EP - 387
BT - Proceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research - Together in the Unstable World
A2 - Cid, David Duenas
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
Y2 - 11 July 2023 through 14 July 2023
ER -