Optimal Visual Cues for Smartphone Earthquake Alert Systems: Preliminary Data from Lab and Field Experiments

Earthquake alerts must rapidly capture attention and trigger efficient reactions, yet little is known about their optimal visual characteristics. To this end, an interdisciplinary effort (design-technology-emotion psychology) focused on one of the early warning key factors: the visual properties of the alert. We first conducted a controlled lab experiment which directly compared the efficiency of different alert cues (text, alert icons, fear faces) in capturing peripheral attention while participants were preoccupied with an engaging activity. Results supported an advantage for icons and faces over text. Next, we conducted a controlled field experiment examining the impact of the alert stimuli (icons vs. faces), personalization (i.e., choosing one’s alert), and the effect of practice by mass-alerting subjects with a custom-made app. Our results suggest dramatic effects of practice, and furthermore, within the practice conditions, participants responded faster to personally chosen faces than icons. Importantly, face alerts received higher user experience ratings of trust and safety. These preliminary results tentatively point to novel future directions in the development of efficient and trustworthy alert interfaces. Furthermore, we join a growing body of studies and technological trends geared at using faces as a means of identification, data collection and analysis.