Elevating Nationwide
Natural Hazard Risk Awareness
Designing an experience for innovative methods to communicate natural hazard risk.
Summary
Communities across the U.S. are at risk of disasters caused by natural hazards, and various factors contribute to a community’s risk.
Communities face a variety of challenges that impact their ability to complete the natural hazard mitigation process and meet regulations. Higher-levels of government are burdened by the help communities need to assess natural hazard risks and complete mitigation projects.
Our team's mission was to create an accessible web app that communicated risk for multiple natural hazards and risk factors. We strived to improve data access for more hazards and risk factors and promote novel ways for the nation to better understand their natural hazard risk.
My contributions as a UX researcher and designer involved multiple discovery phases, low- and high-fidelity design and prototyping using multiple tools, and various usability evaluation and testing methods. As a project manager, I managed a large, inter-disciplinary and multi-organizational team to shepherd the final product through public release and into the next iteration.
The outcome was the National Risk Index, a web app and data index to elevate natural hazard risk awareness across the U.S. Also, we published our work in a peer-reviewed journal, received a shout-out from a White House press briefing, and redefined federal policy for designating communities that need support to build resilience to natural hazards.
Context
The Problem
Natural hazard risk mitigation is carried out across all levels of government from federal to local, with each level serving its role in ensuring communities across the U.S. are prepared and resilient.
However, responsibility ultimately falls on lower levels of government to assess and mitigate their community’s risk, and work with state and federal governments to secure the resources to reduce it.
This is challenging for all involved because natural hazard risk data is scarce, disparate, and hard to access without special skills. There are multiple, often narrow methods for measuring natural hazard risk. Also, risk mitigation planners struggle to follow regulations and source the data or specialized resources needed.
Target Audience
Our primary target audience was natural hazard risk mitigation planners, a general term used to define a role fillable by a broad audience of people with different backgrounds, expertise, and technical abilities.
A “planner” could be a trained hazard mitigation planner in a well-funded, large city or a small town official without any resources and expertise. It could also be consultants on behalf of either.
These planners are responsible for preparing natural hazard mitigation plans, which assess hazard risks and propose project plans to reduce future disasters’ effects on lives, property, and the economy.
Our Team
Our team evolved over time, initially consisting of a UX designer, UX researcher, product owner, and project manager. We later expanded to include web app developers, GIS specialists, data scientists, and subject matter experts in fields like risk analysis.
Some team members were consultants from various firms. I started as a consultant-side UX designer and researcher and later took on the roles of project manager and scrum master.
Vision
Our vision was an accessible, online data product that facilitates at-a-glance comprehension of community-level natural hazard risk and in-depth analyses for risk assessments and mitigation plans.
Intended outcomes included simplifying access to and filling gaps in natural hazard risk data, and promoting a holistic approach to modeling and communicating natural hazard risk for everyone to understand, from experts to the general public.
Process
A semi-agile approach was used to inspire, define, and deliver the National Risk Index, a web-based app and data index product. I led user research during a sprint 0 phase and later phases throughout the project. Early design iterations and testing were a focus before development resources became available. Iterations continued in close collaboration with the team as it was validated through an exclusive beta phase.
I co-led and collaborated across disciplines during design, and led usability testing to refine and validate iterations of designs and builds. As the consultant-side project manager, I maintained alignment with a multi-organizational and cross-functional team, supported public release, and led workshops to define a post-release product roadmap.
Discovery
Sprint 0
We started with client-side stakeholder interviews and auditing an existing proof of concept (POC). It involved a heuristic evaluation of its core, interactive map experience, and a few, quick guerrilla usability tests with people around the office.
Later Sprints
I facilitated a virtual workshop with professional planners from federal, state, and local governments and a pluralistic cognitive walkthrough of the POC’s reporting feature with 3 other reviewers. These activities informed a feature to help planners include report-like exports easily with their plans.
Beta Phase
I helped facilitate and analyze subject matter expert reviews and focus groups about the product’s data, methods, and risk communication methods. Also, I represented the team at a booth at the American Planning Association’s 2018 National Planning Conference in New Orleans, LA where I interacted with, learned from, and recruited a variety of planners.
Post-Release
I conducted a user research strategy workshop, facilitated a focus group, and co-designed a subject matter expert workshop with 14 facilitators and 40+ experts from various natural hazard risk-related fields. These activities helped inform direction and next steps to further elevate risk communication.
Artifacts
Insights were captured in a variety of ways throughout the project, depending on the needs and budget at the time. Key deliverables included problem and vision statements, prototype personas, flow diagrams, and report presentations. Over time, I developed a database of 50+ users for user research and testing in Airtable.
Design
Early Design
I co-led and collaborated with my UX teammate, product owner, app developers, and experts to design the product, the National Risk Index.
The other designer and I started low fidelity on whiteboards, crafting a redesigned information architecture, and creating low-fidelity Balsamiq wireframes and InVision prototypes. After defining a design system and front-end library, we increased design fidelity iteratively in Figma with mockups and more interactive prototypes.
Our design efforts focused first on the map’s data layers, risk communication and information display, and core website pages that delivered informative content. After testing and iterating these features, we focused on a reporting feature to export information to include with mitigation plans.
We shared the overall UX design, working collaboratively and focusing on separate areas. Generally, I focused many efforts on overall information architecture and design, UI layouts, interaction design, and copywriting.
Later Design
While our team optimized the app build and the underlying data and methodology per expert feedback, we iterated on small aspects of the experience from risk communication and copy to UI and interaction design revisions.
I also helped prepare online help and FAQ content and more detailed technical documentation to show the work behind the index.
While preparing for public release, I helped the product owner wireframe and write copy for agency web pages and literature to support its release and use.
Accessibility
It was required that the app be accessible and compliant with Section 508 of the American with Disabilities Act. To help meet accessibility requirements, I designed tab flows, interaction patterns, aria attributes, alt text, and more to support assistive technology (e.g., screen reader), and helped clear up UI design issues like contrast.
Testing
Early Testing
We iterated designs with qualitative data from several formative usability tests I planned and facilitated with representative users, including expert and non-expert hazard mitigation planners. Most tests were moderated, conducted with InVision then Figma prototypes, and in-person or remote via Skype then Microsoft Teams.
These early tests used the think-aloud protocol with scenarios and defined tasks. A comparison test protocol was used for the map’s risk communication methods. Unmoderated protocols with online surveys to collect data were used as needed.
Beta Testing
I used guerrilla testing methods with a beta build at the American Planning Association Conference in New Orleans with planners, academics/researchers, students, and more. While I was there, I recruited future testers and research participants.
Before release, I planned and conducted a summative usability test with more quantitative metrics like task success rate, time on task, and the system usability scale.
Project Management
I managed the project in the months leading up to and after the official public release. In this role, I used Microsoft Project to manage resource budgets, and maintained a backlog in Azure DevOps to manage our cross-disciplinary and multi-organizational team’s day-to-day work.
I supported the product owner as they shepherded the final product through internal red tape, including reviews by agency leadership, general counsel, and external affairs.
To recollect ourselves for the future, I supported the product owner by conducting workshops and developing a product roadmap. I also coordinated across the team and additional resources to plan and facilitate the post-release discovery expert workshop critical to next steps.
Result
We created the National Risk Index, an interactive, web-based mapping experience that enables anyone to visually explore multiple datasets to better understand what is driving a community’s natural hazard risk to 18 natural hazards. Planners can create reports and export data to conduct more in-depth analyses and include information in plans.
A vision was defined to improve and enhance the National Risk Index data model and app to consider additional risk factors. The team also published an article in Natural Hazards about the data and methods behind it, and more.
Outcomes
When released, it was picked up by multiple national and local news outlets.
It was highlighted in a White House press release and fact sheet as a key initiative to make climate information and tools more accessible.
In Dec 2022, the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022 was passed into law. As a result, the National Risk Index will be used to designate and create transparency around communities most in need of help, or disaster resilience zones, and how much help they need.
Other countries are using the National Risk Index as inspiration for their own tool.
Lessons Learned
Effective communication through multiple modes, collaboration, and candidness play a pivotal role in delivering value to users, customers, clients, and internal teams in both agile and waterfall approaches.
Promote a mobile-first approach and validate mobile requirements earlier to avoid graceful degradation.
User stories centered around people on the team are valuable for defining agile work items to deliver internal value.
Want to learn more?