Read. Understand. Apply.

Much of the time that I have written about language inconsistency and the use of jargon in messages, it has been focused on WILDFIRE.  Many previous posts to the Warning Gallery have pointed to the use of operational and technical language (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 or Ready status, Set status, Go status) that has more meaning to responders and commanders than to the public.  In fact, we’ve published about the use of inconsistent language in the National Fire Protection A

A colleague sent this message to me, calling attention to the words "hazardous materials" and asking what might be a more plain language...

We've written about law enforcement messages in the past, showing how they can be "tricky" to write about because of the uncertainty of...

There's a lot of good things to say about this message sent by the Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience; but there are also a few...

When WEA was first initiated, messages addressed imminent and actionable threats, requiring public response to increase the safety of a...

Message design is more than just the inclusion of contents, it also includes the ordering and the use of visual effects to capture...

Three messages sent from 11:41 pm to 4:55 am in one night. While its uncommon to find multiple messages issued over the course of the...

Wildfire WEA issued on 6/28/2023 In prior posts, we discussed the importance of message consistency. Most frequently, this is a topic...

Alerts sent on 3/10/23 to West Hollywood, followed by all of L.A. County The Warn Room resources and commentary have been primarily...

Top WEA sent 11/4/2022 1:23 pm CDT Bottom WEA sent 11/4/2022 1:20 pm CDT External message consistency is just as important as internal...

WEA sent 10/26/2020 While the research record supports a specific order of contents to improve message comprehension (source; hazard;...