The growing popularity of emoji has drawn attention to social media interactions, including within the context of health information. This study explored and analyzed the usage patterns of emoji in relation to health information by arranging a focus group and conducting a design experiment. To this end, we created a micro-database of 69 health-themed emoji representing various parts of speech; specifically, they could function as nouns, verbs, and adjectives simultaneously. An information design experiment was conducted to investigate how emoji could be used as a visual language to assist in the design and communication of health information. Our analysis yielded several important findings, including (1) recommendations regarding the quantity, frequency, and placement of emoji in health information; (2) an examination of the denotative aspects of emoji–word integration in visual language; and (3) the strategic positioning of emoji within appropriate sentence components, with an emphasis on the judicious use of repeated emoji to create or enhance visual hierarchies. This exploratory study constitutes a first step in understanding the design application paradigms of emoji in health communication and provides nuanced theoretical insights into visual health communication as well as practical implications for information design.

Emoji have become an important component of visual language since they were officially introduced into the Unicode Character Database in 2010 and have become commonplace in most people’s lives. These graphic symbols were popularly used worldwide due to their widespread use on social media platforms. More and more researchers have also used emoji as stimulus cues to explore the relationship between emotions and attitude in the fields of communication, online behavior, health, food safety, and other field of study. Gboard, a virtual keyboard developed by Google, announced Emoji Kitchen in 2020 for Android users, and now also open to iOS users, and even launched a web version for computer users to use. Emoji Kitchen is a special feature that allows users to combine two different emoji symbols into brand-new ones. By using Emoji Kitchen as a generator tool, this study aims to investigate what key visual elements to replenish the emoji items to meet users’ communication needs, particularly in the health context. This study firstly presumes emoji as elements of visual language to represent a noun, a verb, and an interjection. Secondly, an exploratory investigation was conducted to test how people make sense of the relationship between multiple emoji, within which to demonstrate how various arrangements of emoji affect the semantic meanings. Results show that current standardized and widely used emoji are inadequate for users to express freely online in the context of health issues. What to choose and how to use the emoji when people express their emotions in the context of health were defined. The consensus in visual preferences was initially discovered. Our previous studies have proved that emoji are highly capable of promoting more comprehensible and persuasive information communication, as well as improving reading speed. This study finds further details about how emoji play roles as vital components of visual language in communication.

Through a combination of theory, practice, and a range of interdisciplinary case studies, this book expands how we define and think about the critical role and relationship between design and emergencies. This role extends far beyond aesthetics: the book highlights the urgency of ensuring that a wide range of stakeholders and a diverse representation of the public comes together to work towards preventing disasters.

Design in the context of disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and (wild) fires, provides new ways of looking at challenges. It contributes methods to actively engage communities in managing and minimizing disaster risk. Contributors present the latest research on how (collaborative) design and design thinking contribute to the development of processes and solutions to increase disaster literacy and decrease disaster risk for individuals and entire communities. Chapters highlight applied research and implementation of design and design thinking before, during, and after emergencies, resulting in a set of design guidelines derived from best practice.

The book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in emergency management, product and service design, strategic design, design research, co-design, social design, design for change, and human-centered design.

A successful emergency product or instructional design acknowledges potential unpredictable user behavior and considers the instinctive hard-wired response of a user in distress, who may exhibit different responses than expected and even practiced and learned ‘right’ behavior can become counter-productive. However, in product development, the focus is too often on the performance of the product before an emergency occurs with the activation of the device as its culmination. In response, this chapter presents seven design guidelines for emergency products based on human responses during an emergency. In addition, it emphasizes three key design tactics often overlooked in design for emergencies: affordances, signifiers and feedback. The guidelines are subsequently applied to assess the current generation of marine distress flares, showing that despite their improved technical specifications, current designs are prone to incorrect use and potential injury. However, minimal changes to the original design offer the opportunity to positively alter the perception of the products’ intent and usability. The evaluation reinforces the value of the guidelines established as a framework for thinking about design for emergencies and grounding the design process in empathy with a user in distress and the physiological and cognitive limitations they are likely to experience during an emergency.

This chapter discusses design-driven, co-creative projects for the improvement of emergency-management systems. To weather a disaster, if one occurs, people should have access to successfully delivered information regarding what they must have and what they must do. Recent projects addressing this matter have combined design-driven development with the co-creation model, resulting in four distinct design methods: (1) input from clients, as well as designers, (2) professional co-design, (3) designer–retailer collaboration, and (4) self-funded input from designers and sponsors. Workshops, panels, and other brainstorming processes enable designers and other contributors of design-based projects to voice their thoughts, to reveal pitfalls in existing and proposed designs, to clarify problems, and to propose, assess, and refine solutions. The knowledge gleaned from these efforts was then divided into four preparedness-related categories: (1) fundamental knowledge, (2) humanitarian needs, (3) adapted assistance, and (4) routines and updates. After exploring these methods one by one, the importance of co-creative, design-driven development for preparedness is discussed and how seven components—propaganda, activities, personnel, technology, equipment, communication, and visual identity—create a reliable emergency-management system rooted in public consciousness.

Wildfire events across North America are impacting more communities, putting people’s lives and possessions increasingly at risk. Local community leadership and emergency management are taking the initiative to develop public-facing wildfire information campaigns to help people identify two factors: (1) the level of fire risk where they live and (2) evacuation route alternatives. FireClear is a visual diagrammatic methodology applied to public-facing maps that help people become aware of their risk and wildfire hazard areas prior to a wildfire event. The goal of FireClear is to help people learn new evacuation routes that may differ from everyday routines. FireClear maps translate data-driven and content-heavy GIS maps traditionally developed and used by government agencies for internal planning into simplified and visually consistent public-facing maps to improve understanding and increase transparency and enhance communication. FireClear maps are not meant to be used at the time of a wildfire. FireClear is a tool to be used to help develop a person’s cognitive map of their risk area before a crisis, and to facilitate learning and remembering new evacuation route options. During a wildfire, people should rely on local alerts and listen to information from local authorities.

By providing health information through visual communication, public health organizations can effectively guide and persuade people to adopt healthy behaviors, which is critical in the context of public health crises. In this study, drawing upon congruity theory and the premise of visual communication, we examined how information source and emoji may shape people’s preventive and self-protective behaviors through perceived fear (PF) and perceived controllability (PC). Using a convenience sample of 210 participants, we conducted a 2 (emoji: with versus without) × 2 (information source: official versus unofficial) between-subject experiment. The results indicated that, compared with nonuse, the use of emoji in information resulted in higher PF, stronger preventive behavioral intention (PBI), and lower PC. In addition, a strong interaction effect was observed between emoji and the source of information on PBI. When emoji were added to health information released by an unofficial organization, the text outperformed that from an official agency in persuading people to adopt preventive behaviors. Furthermore, we determined that PF mediated the effect of emoji on PBI, but only for unofficial information sources. These results provide a reference for enhancing the effectiveness of health information including visual cues, such as emoji.

Social media is a valuable tool that enables public health organizations to communicate effectively. To enhance the reach of health communication on social media, scholars have proposed that emoji be used to convey scientific information. The current study explored the influence of emoji on the effectiveness of health communication on social media. Automated content analysis revealed that the presence of emoji in online health information resulted in higher levels of social media engagement (SME) than the absence of emoji did. Additionally, a 2 (emoji: present versus absent) × 3 (visual complexity of information design: low versus medium versus high) online experiments revealed that the presence of emoji in health information sequentially increased perceived enjoyment and perceived interactivity, thereby promoting SME. However, this effect is influenced by the visual complexity of health information designs. The presence of emoji is only effective in increasing SME with health information presented using a design with low or medium visual complexity. This study provides theoretical and practical insights into visual health communication and health information design.

Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have a profoundly higher risk of death or injury than their peers when natural disasters occur. International policies call for inclusive disaster risk reduction education (DRRE) to help ameliorate this situation. This paper focuses on Indonesia, which has one the highest incidences of these disasters. A three-part structured literature review was undertaken regarding DRRE and children with SEND, followed by a questionnaire to in schools. Firstly, potential papers were screened against explicit criteria, yielding 23 papers for inclusion in the review. Secondly, these 23 papers were screened for identifiable DRR programmes, producing 12 items. Thirdly, evaluations of these 12 programmes were sought. The findings revealed that children with SEND were largely absent within the published research, the DRRE programmes, and all subsequent evaluations of the DRRE programmes. Questionnaire responses from 769 teachers from across Indonesia indicated that DRRE was often lacking, and that no programmes that were being used were accessible for all children. This is the first study to gain this insight and it concludes that there is a need for DRRE across mainstream, inclusive, and special schools, which has an inclusive and enagaing pedagogy that is accessible for all children.