User Engagement Reports

The Hazard Simplification project formally kicked off in 2014, after initial efforts beginning in 2011. NWS supported user engagement and risk communication research through focus groups, surveys, and workshops to determine specific areas for improvement.

Summaries of the research efforts and their findings are below. Click each title to view the full report.

2014: Focus Groups
Who: Emergency managers, broadcast media, NWS forecasters, and the public
What: Change is desired, too many NWS headlines, terms not intuitive

2015: Case Study Survey & 3-Day Workshop
Who: Emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists, private sector partners
What: Simplify alerting system, focus on impacts, and improve formatting and wording

2017: Institutionalization Survey
Who: Organizations from 32 different sectors
What: The WARNING headline most embedded in current policy, ADVISORY least. Most could adjust to change.

2018: Generalizable Public Survey
Who: General public (representative sample)
What: ADVISORY is least understood headline and often conflated with WATCH

2019 - 2021: Webinars, Surveys, and Focus Groups
Who: Emergency managers, broadcast media, NWS forecasters, and the public
What: Color- and number-based options problematic, support for eliminating ADVISORY

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