Disaster researcher Dr. Jeannette Sutton has spent years studying how people interpret alerts, and why so many fail. Her FEMA-funded Warning Lexicon project tackles a simple but costly problem: most emergency alerts are incomplete and confusing. See our interview with her below.

What motivated you to create the Warning Lexicon? What problem were you trying to solve? 

The Warning Lexicon is the data foundation for the Message Design Dashboard, a FEMA-funded project to create software that allows emergency managers and other public safety communicators to write complete messages with pre-identified message content.  The Lexicon is the document that contains all of that content in an analog form.  

When a message sender logs into their emergency notification software, they face a blank box with no instructions on how to write an effective warning message or contents to help facilitate it.  This meant more than 90% of alerts issued by alerting authorities as Wireless Emergency Alerts in the first decade of WEA (not including NWS messages) were incomplete and, in many cases, not actionable. We want to make it easier to write effective messages so that authorities can do it faster and better and the public can get to safety. 

Who should leverage this resource? Are there any groups or stakeholders you wish would use it that currently don't? 

Anyone who has a role in sending emergency alerts should use this resource.  While it was designed with WEA in mind (360-character messages), the suggestions and workflow apply to all communication channels (text, social media, emails).  And it can assist internal communications to employees and other stakeholders as well.  

I wish we could get more of our law enforcement colleagues to make use of the Lexicon; this group has access to WEA and issues messages about people and events that are dangerous.  We have recommendations for how to write complete messages for these hazards too! 

What can we expect from the Post-Alert Lexicon? 

The Post-Alert Lexicon helps message senders to close the communication loop.  We have done research on what kind of information people need and want when an event has ended and they can conclude, resume, or return to their prior activity.  The Post-Alert Lexicon provides a message workflow and contents for all of the hazard types contained in the Warning Lexicon. 

What's one way everyone can make their alerts more effective? 

Write complete messages.  This means including the name of the message sender (the source), the name of the hazard and how it can impact people, the location of impact, the time to take action, and, most importantly, instructions on what to do and how to do it.  

Where can folks find out more about your work and help support it?

You can find my work at www.thewarnroom.com and follow me on LinkedIn @jeannettesutton.  I’m available to consult to any organization, including webinars and lectures, message evaluation and instruction, and custom training.