Background

For this design challenge, our team was tasked with designing a more effective way to communicate the dynamic and evolving risks about wildfires to the people who need to understand and respond to them — residents, first responders, elected officials, and others — before, during, and after a wildfire event. We learned about pre-existing tools and information (such as extreme weather maps, Firemap, Watch Duty, fire maps) that serve to inform the public about wildfire activity. We also interviewed professionals who map wildfires for a living as well as regular people who had experienced wildfires firsthand. This led us to focus on young adults apathetic towards the dangers of wildfires, since we had a compelling firsthand account from a college student who was in a high-risk zone for a wildfire in 2025 but didn't feel an urgent need to evacuate, despite instructions to do so. Our goal was to come up with a solution that made more information about the risks of wildfires easily available to people, with the hope that they would understand the risks better and be compelled to take action. 

 

The Problem

​Because young adults are familiar with scrolling short-form videos on social media, we expanded upon existing

emergency alerts to include not only text, but live videos and trusted speakers, to provide more information and spur the audience to listen to local authorities about the urgent risks that wildfires pose.

 

The User

Young adults who are apathetic towards the dangers wildfires pose to them. They do not prioritize preparing for emergencies or evacuation unless it feels immediate or personally relevant, posing a risk to themselves and others.

 

Solution Preview

We redesigned existing emergency alerts to create Advanced Emergecny Alert (AEA). AEA builds upon the existing emergency alert infrastructure that notifies people’s phones when there is a disaster, such as a wildfire, with a short form video format. AEA grabs the attention of young adults so that even the most apathetic will feel the gravity of the situation and feel empowered to take action (by evacuating or preparing to). AEA functions the same way as existing emergency systems but with a key difference: an audio notification with brief, spoken instructions pops up automatically if a person located in an evacuation or at-risk area while providing informative videos. The user first sees a brief clip from a non-partisan authority, like a firefighter on the scene, notifying people the situation at hand. The screen then auto-scrolls to a real-time map of affected areas with the person’s live location used as reference. Finally, the interface displays clear evacuation instructions, including what direction and roads to take to avoid the fire and get to safety. Utilizing visuals, maps, and trustworthy speakers reduces potential misinterpretations and lets the user know exactly where the fire is, allowing them to feel knowledgeable and in control. Since the visuals go beyond mere text, even young adults who would normally disregard an alert would experience the gravity of the situation and feel empowered and informed to take action to evacuate.

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User Research

At the beginning of the designathon, we were given the design challenge along with some preliminary information abuot how wildfires are mapped, services that already exist to inform the public about wildfires, and data about wildfires and their risks. We did some initial ideation to identify what we knew, what we thought we knew, and what we didn't know, as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary user groups. 

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What we knew:

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What we thought we knew:

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What we didn't know:

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We also identified several wildfire risk factors (based on the initial information): 

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User groups:

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We then conducted interviews with two college students who had experienced wildfires, as well as three professional stakeholders that worked with wildfires. In addition, we conducted online research to better understand people's perceptions of wildfire emergencies. 

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Online Research

Our findings highlighted that while using Aha!, product managers often struggled with:

• Overwhelming Interfaces: Aha! has too many information fields and input areas, and there is a lack of clear visual hierarchy.

  • ​“It’s too complex! It’s like using a big hammer to kill a small ant."

• Navigation Issues: Stakeholders had difficulty comparing feature ideas side-by-side or organizing them meaningfully.

  • "Depending on the release, there can be up to 100 features."​​

• Terminology Barriers: Aha! uses ambiguous terms that create a steeper learning curve and slows productivity.

  • “You’d need outside training to understand the terms; it assumes you already know all the app specific vocab, which is unhelpful for new users"