Integrating End-User Feedback to Inform Development of a New Urban Rain Rate Dashboard Product
Journal Article
Overview
abstract
Abstract; Urban flooding impacts have been, and continue to be, significant, and the risk is increasing for many cities in the United States. Professionals such as city planners, stormwater management, emergency management, and public works officials, among others, need to understand the temporal and spatial probabilities of forecasted precipitation events and how they can impact flooding risk at the city level. To address this need, the U.S. National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center conceptualized a new Urban Rain Rate Dashboard (URRD) product to inform users in major U.S. metropolitan areas of the likelihood that their city-specific critical rain-rate threshold will be exceeded, including when and where, by showing the forecast probability of rainfall rate exceedance. To inform product development and understand user needs, a mixed-methods social science research study explored the usefulness of the product for decision-making through surveys and virtual focus groups with professionals across the United States, focusing on how and what information is displayed in the URRD. Findings supported the preference for a central city-level dashboard, accessed via a map-based landing page, providing components that allow customization of the display including options for local time and the metric used for exceedance criteria. The integration of social science research early in the product design was instrumental to the iterative refinement of the prototype. This study illustrates the value of iterative collaboration between social scientists and forecast offices for efficient product development that ultimately leads to better-informed decision-makers and clearer risk communication.; ; Significance Statement; Through the iterative refinement of a new Urban Rain Rate Dashboard product, this mixed-methods social science research study demonstrates how the integration of end-user feedback early in the design process can support product usefulness. Close collaboration with the Weather Prediction Center allowed Nurture Nature Center to collect insights from a range of professional end users in major metropolitan areas across the United States. Findings help with understanding users’ information needs and concerns, elicitation of how users prefer to receive information, and feedback on the design and format of the dashboard product. The need for customization (such as local time and city-specific thresholds) and for temporal and spatial displays of forecasts at the city level was incorporated into the final prototype design.;
