After Hurricane Katrina: Post Disaster Experience Research Using HCI Tools and Techniques

Abstract

This paper focuses on the time period between September 2005 and September 2006 where HCI research experiments were deployed in a post-hurricane Katrina disaster area. This area stretched from the cities of Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (the epicenter of hurricane Katrina) to shelters in Baton Rouge and Houston, Texas. The HCI experiments were constructed in order to understand immediate disaster aftermath issues of a population in context of activities, information and organizational needs. The use of a Participatory Design (PD) methodology, Ethnographic techniques, and design Probes were refined over the course of the longitudinal study. Field notes were created in an iterative process with individual participants over a course of time due to the impact of shock and cognitive issues early on. These field notes then influenced a set of personas that were iterated and used as a vehicle to gather and validate field research findings and people’s needs within the disaster framework. The main goal of this paper is not to propose informational, organizational or technology solutions to the complex problems inherent in a disaster cycle, but to illustrate both the failure and success of using HCI methods in a post disaster situation. Therefore, a disaster cycle is outlined and described in this paper. Insights and thoughts regarding the Rescue and Recovery phases are described and notes where HCI as a practice may influence or contribute to these areas within the disaster cycle are outlined. The last part of the paper illustrates the first HCI experiment in the field and some of the iterations and findings from this practice. This first research study was undertaken at a grassroots level, yet this does not mean valuable information could not be gathered in further studies of governmental, NGOs, or businesses participating in planning, preparing or rescue and recovery efforts during a disaster. In fact, the opportunity to combine grassroots and governmental HCI research could offer immense benefits. However, as a grassroots initiative it is a level of inquiry without the constraints of political hierarchy. Given this, this paper focuses less on how HCI can be used in a more typical framework where a sponsor, such as a client and HCI worker are collaborating in HCI “workplace” research, and more on developing tools and methods within communities.