Designing Visual Analytic Tools for Emergency Operation Centers: A Qualitative Approach

The Emergency Management Information System (EMIS) field has an established tradition of user-centered methodological approaches for design and evaluation research. However, visual analytics, a new field that is starting to intersect with EMIS, is barely using such approaches. Thus an opportunity has emerged to expand these user-centered approaches from EMIS towards visual analytics via the design of visual analytics tools for emergency management. In this article, the authors present a qualitative methodology for design research that takes on this opportunity. This specific methodology is characterized by using non-participant observation and interviews as methods and by being theoretically informed by the multidisciplinary framework of visual analytics. The authors also include a detailed application of the methodology to the design of visual analytic tools for Emergency Operation Centers in Vancouver, Canada as well as the corresponding results: contextual knowledge for design, informed requirements for four design projects and evaluation criteria for these designs. Designing Visual Analytic Tools for Emergency Operation Centers: A Qualitative Approach