Emergency warning messages: do colours and icons improve community readiness to act?
This is the third of three concurrent Hazard Notes for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project, Creating effective multichannel communication during disaster response and recovery, conducted as part of the Communication and Warnings cluster.
This research adopts a multi-hazards approach to examine the effectiveness of response and recovery communication in communities affected by natural hazards. It applies well-established risk communications and psychological theory of human behaviour to determine whether existing emergency messages could be revised to improve comprehension.
This Hazard Note explores whether colours and icons help to encourage action during emergencies. Hazard Note 79 outlines opportunities for emergency services to improve their communication and messaging. Hazard Note 80 details which types of specific messages encourage community readiness.