Usability of Social Media During Times of Disaster

1. Usability of Social Media During Times of Disaster World Usability Day Liza Potts, Associate Professor // @LizaPotts // lpotts@msu.edu Director of WIDE Research // Director of Experience ArchitectureDept. of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures @ Michigan State UniversityCollege of Arts & Letters @ Michigan State University

2. Introductions… Director of WIDE Research • Social user experience, disaster studies, participatory culture, fans • Research sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum & Library Services • Leadership group for #WomeninTC and Chair of ACM’s SIGDOC Associate Professor in Dept. of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures • Director of Experience Architecture program • Teaching classes in User Experience, Content Strategy, Digital Rhetoric, Research Methods, Information Design, Digital Humanities • Study Abroad focused on Cultures & Storytelling User Experience Architect working in/with Industry Partners since 1994 • Built software used by millions, managed teams across three continents • Design Consultancies, Start-Ups, Microsoft, advised NBC/Universal, RIM, FordDirect, ICON, Willis, National Grid, Lincoln Financial, etc.

3. Prior Research: Disasters Studying disasters since 2004 • Indian Ocean Earthquake/Tsunami • London Bombings • Hurricane Katrina • Mumbai Attacks • Norway Attacks (Utøya) • Christ Church Earthquake #EQNZ • Japan Earthquake / Tsunami • Boston Bombings • Sandy Hook School Shooting • Colorado Theater Shootings • And several recent disasters…

5. BECAUSE REASONS Why Social Media? Participation Interaction Presence Across systems, time zones, and cultures Why Disaster? Immediacy Time-sensitive Urgency Across systems, time zones, and cultures

7. Social Media Use During Disasters

8. Disaster  Participation Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami • Participation Through the MSM, Red Cross/Crescent, limited on Flickr Hurricane Katrina • Participation around MSM (CNN) with Craigslist and LiveJournal London Bombings of 7 July • Flickr, IRC, GoogleEarth Keyhole Maps, Blogs, cellphone video, MS Paint Virginia Tech Massacre • AIM, texting, Facebook groups Mumbai Bombings • Rise of Twitter, Blogs, Google Docs as information centers Boston Bombings • Issues on reddit and 4chan Since – Twitter, reddit, and culturally specific social networks

9. What are the issues? Usability Problems Participant Solutions Hashtags r/news and r/? Facebook, FB groups YouTube, Image pools MS Paint Texting • Constraining use – lack of interconnectedness • Incongruence – what lies beneath vs what’s on top • Lack of contextual and cultural understanding • New awesome systems no one knows about

10. Broken experiences

11. And Participant-Led Solutions

12. Thinking in Experiences Across systems, nationalities, technologies • Tasks: Information Gathering • Experiences: Narratives, Stories • Language: Cross-Cultural and Communal “…there are no Other People. It’s only us.” ~ N. Gaiman

13. Social Media Use During Disasters

18. Dina Works to Create a Participatory Experience “Our updates and conversations on Twitter kept us connected,” ~ Dina Mehta

19. Thinking in Experiences Across systems, nationalities, technologies • Tasks: Information Gathering • Experiences: Narratives, Stories • Language: Cross-Cultural and Communal “…there are no Other People. It’s only us.” ~ N. Gaiman

20. Experience architecture is the strategy and practice of user experience from the perspective of the Humanities Experience Architects play a strategic role in brainstorming, building, and sustaining digital experiences for participants Our program is 50/50 for gender and 27% diverse – with the goal of improving diversity in the software industry, one student at a time

21. B.A. in Experience Architecture

22. Talking to Prospective Students

23. Thank you! Liza PottsAssociate Professor of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultureslpotts@msu.edu @LizaPotts Director of WIDE Researchwide.cal.msu.edu Director of Experience Architecturexa.cal.msu.edu