ABSTRACT
Abstract: This chapter develops a systematic description of the design problem space for the design of user interfaces for disaster response technology. The description is derived from examination of three sociological dimensions of events (scale, kind, and anticipability), focusing on their implications for response characteristics. The resulting twelve-dimensional framework provides designers with a conceptual tool for understanding the users, tasks, and contexts of a given response technology. Use of the framework is illustrated in the analysis of the American Red Cross component of the response to a conventional local disaster (an apartment-building fire), which reveals a surprising complexity of designing response technology even for a small conventional disaster. The conceptual framework developed offers the beginnings of a theoretical foundation for a design-oriented discipline of response technology.
