A little TEST message can go a long way...

Required Weekly Test

IPAWS users are required to test their user proficiency with a weekly test alert that is issued to users who have opted in to receive them. This is also a great opportunity to demonstrate the type of test message that could be issued during a live test in a community - one that is announced ahead of time, organized with community members, and publicized by the media. These live tests have the added benefit, if done correctly, of growing system awareness and demonstrating the capability of local alerting tools as well as competency of alerting authorities. Its a win-win!

I recall one live test that was issued last year, where clues to whether or not it was real were hidden in the message. A sort of seek-and-find, but for a missing person alert that had some people fairly upset that their emotions, and beliefs, were toyed with. In another case, I learned about an agency that planned to issue an alert unannounced, with the hope that the "click here" would drive traffic to their website that they wanted to test. Had that plan proceeded, more than just a website was likely to have crashed.

What I really like about this test message is that it hits all of the Warning Response Model elements - source (City of Norfolk), hazard/subject (testing its Wireless Emergency Alerts), explanation of the hazard/subject (this message confirms that your phone can receive emergency alerts), plus guidance (in an actual emergency, this system would be used to share potentially life-saving information. No action is required as this is just a TEST.) They also use this opportunity to get a little feedback by sharing a link to a survey.

To emphasize key words - TEST is written in ALL CAPS 4 times. From our studies using eye tracking to detect where our attention goes to in a message, we know that the use of CAPS helps to make the message easier to read, eyes skim over those CAPITALIZED letters quickly, and the CAPS are remembered. It's a pretty cool little trick to help break up the text and also help to improve recall of key information.

Scanning through Warn.PBS.org, I've seen a few other interesting ways to increase WEA knowledge and engagement using a weekly TEST message. These include:

1) Asking receivers to click on a URL to acknowledge receiving the message (thats a great way to assess how many of the people who are signed up to receive alerts actually get them - there's really no other way to know that without asking)

2) Messages that include a URL or phone number to call for more information on alerts and warnings or WEA in general

3) An explanation that an alert tone and an official message would have followed the alert (which isn't quite correct... so I think that was a little misleading).

I also saw a test message that directed people to a URL to turn OFF their test messages. This is likely to be a missed opportunity for public education. Given that test messages require the public to OPT-IN, why not make use of their attention to help get feedback and improve the local alerting efforts?

If you'd like more information on how to write effective WEAs, be sure to download The Warning Lexicon and share it with your colleagues today.

Content from this blog may be shared with attribution to the author, Jeannette Sutton.