The solution contains three key components:
The Mobile Application: Haven
The heart of the solution, Haven helps citizens prepare for disasters, both in terms of material and logistics. To this end, there are four core features that facilitate disaster readiness:
Onboarding
The opening splash screen.
Onboarding
Getting people familiar with an app is essential to getting them to use it, especially in the case of more skeptical users, as indicated in our tests.
The onboarding process takes place as soon as the user first opens Haven. Haven's basic functions are explained in a clear and precise manner.
Onboarding
The new user is instructed to input their basic information. Haven does not draw information from the phone. This is a matter of trust, as per user testing.
Haven does, however, customize its functionality based who the user is: a caregiver, a citizen with special medical needs, or a person without special medical needs.
Preparation
Knowing who will accompany the user in the event of an evacuation allows Haven to suggest optimal preparation arrangements. For example, the preparation list for a user with pets will recommend obtaining additional items, such as pet food.
Haven also features high contrast elements and larger than normal type faces, which helps assist elderly users. A majority of people with special medical needs and many of their caregivers are elderly.
Preparation
Progress bars allow users to quickly scan how prepared they are and help to encourage completion.
The card layout was unanimously preferred over bullet points during user tests.
Preparation
The "i" icon brings up detailed information explaining why a particular item is needed in an emergency kit.
Preparation
Users said they were more likely to complete a request when they understood its necessity. Here is a mathematical explanaition of why specifically 6 gallons of water is being recommended.
Preparation
As the user completes more of their preparation, the haven in the upper left corner becomes more and more secure.
Registration
Not every person who can register for a special needs shelter does, and of those that do, not many use them. They either aren’t aware of their availability, or they have trouble with the steps needed to sign up. Haven helps encourage registration by simplifying and streamlining the proccess.
Registration
Users can immediately see what information they need to provide for special medical needs shelters prepare for their intake. For example if they need assistance being evacuated to the shelter.
The blue button in the upper right of the screen allows users to easily share their information with family and friends if desired, or neccesary.
Registration
Detailed completion of a person's medical information also helps Haven determine whether a shelter has the facilities to suit their needs.
Evacuation
In case of evacuation, Haven recommends the best route to safety based on up-to-the-minute geographical and weather information.
Evacuation
This is Haven's recommendation for the best sheltering options one week before a storm.
Based on conditions and the medical and personal information of the user, or the person they care for, Haven suggests the safest places to shelter. Again, clear explanaition of the reasoning behind Haven's recommendations is key to encouraging follow-through.
Evacuation
As information changes, so does Haven's recommendations for shelter. Now it's three days before the storm and it is no longer recommended for the user to shelter-in-place. They are in danger of losing electricity.
Service Plan
Alongside Haven, we are providing Teletracking, with a service plan for data collection. While Haven is intended to direct people away from hospitals in disasters, there is more that can be done to help hospitals in these critical situations. Below is a service plan of how Haven's functions relate to three key stakeholders: the caregiver, the shelter/emergency manangement system, and the hospital in the lead up to and during a disaster. Also included is a model of what data flows between which stakeholders at each juncture.
Feature Roadmap
The Feature Roadmap provides for the future expansion of Haven and its associated services for Teletracking. Central to this is bringing Haven to other geographical locations and adapting it to other disasters, such as winter storms, or earthquakes. The roadmap includes many ideas created in the the generative design stage that had to be abandoned for expediency, including incorporating "smart" sensors for data collection and providing incentives for completing preparation lists, such as coupons towards needed supplies.
Feature Roadmap
