Colour map design for crisis maps

Abstract

The role of maps in disaster management phases and their importance have already been well established. Timely response and accurate communication are crucial in a crisis; hence the crisismap design needs to suit the purpose. Crisis events often require immediate actions, hence, theusers' ability to correctly interpret and process map information under exogenous stressors andtime pressure is limited. Producing a simulation of a crisis in lab conditions could help identifydesign guidelines that would allow efficient and accurate responses. An experiment has been designed to assess the impact of colour by analysing users’ inputs from answering the questions about six maps that have been created using two colour palettes consisting of calming or pastel (blues, greens, purples) and arousing colours (oranges, reds, yellows) under different levels of induced stress. The results consist of time response, accuracy, and qualitative survey, providing insights into the contextual role of colour. Over 40 participants engaged in the experiment representing the general public, possessing different technical backgrounds, and varying in age,education and map reading skills. The experiment was conducted in person in Southeast Europe;hence the participants have a homogeneous cultural background. The meaning of colours is therefore limited to Western cultures. Evaluating the time response results of the control group and stress-exposed groups showed significance for maps with lower complexity and were in favour ofarousing colours. On the other hand, the accuracy was slightly higher for the arousing colours,however, without significant values. The participants mainly preferred pastel colour palettes, eventhough the preference was not fully positively reflected in the results. It is recommended to repeata similar study with a larger participants group and compare the general trend.