DNEM Workshop

The Design for Emergency Management workshop took place over Interterm 2019 and was an exciting ordeal as this was the first time the executive board had met in person. Mostly communicating through Sykpe, Facetime, and carrier pigeons, the five researchers/designers finally shook hands at Chapman University for the first (of hopefully many) DNEM workshops. All passionate about this niche subject, the board includes Claudine Jaenichen from Orange, CA, Rodrigo Ramiréz from Santiago, Chile, Tingyi Lin from Taiwan, Klaus Kremer from Wellington, New Zealand, and Saskia van Manen from the Netherlands. Claudine was the organizer of this event and wrote the grant to have the workshop hosted at Chapman. The goal of the workshop was to: (1) Share state-of-the-art research and practice in design for emergency management; (2) Develop a global agenda of priority research on accelerating progress towards a better understanding of the underlying theory; (3) Facilitate greater research collaboration, research-practice cross-pollination, and stimulate learning communities across disciplines, sectors and countries; (4) Strengthen the rigor of the field, including concepts, frameworks, measures and methods; and (5) Identify mechanisms for strengthening the capacities, at individual and institutional levels, on the use of design for emergency management. Working alongside DNEM’s board were five Chapman graphic design students: Julia Ross, Alex Conradt, Derek Shafer, Sam White, and Aly Carley. The interns helped with photography, videography, social media, prototyping, and branding.

Participants included all levels of emergency management from FEMA, the California Governor’s Office, and regional and local departments. The significance of the workshop explored systemic approaches for evidence-based design in the specialized area of emergency planning. This was a unique opportunity, and first of its kind, where people from diverse fields such as design, research, science, emergency planning, and policy are together exchanging ideas and working collaboratively. The workshop built a stronger body of universal knowledge, credibility, and applications of design methodologies in disaster risk management.

Presentations were given by each board member followed by an activity of rapid prototyping:

  • Visual thinking, Visual Language by Tingyi Lin
  • Iconography by Rodrigo Ramiréz
  • Cognition and Emergency Information by Claudine Jaenichen
  • Technology + User Experience by Klaus Kremer
  • Ethics and Evaluation; and the Real World by Saskia van Manen

Buy the workshop book! Design for emergency management is intended for emergency managers and other interested parties, this guidebook provides an easily accessible overview of visual language, iconography, cognition in emergencies, rapid prototyping, evaluation, and ethics.

Follow the Facebook DNEM page.

Executive Board of Directors—Klaus Kremer, Tingyi Lin, Claudine Jaenichen, Rodrigo Ramerez, and Saskia van Manen—planning the next workshop session.
Saskia van Manen talking to a group of particpants.
Close-up of Saskia's "Ethics Canvas" worksheet being completed by a workshop participant.
Klaus Kremer helping workshop participants develop a rapid prototype for an app.
Close-up of a map drawing completed by a workshop participant.
A workshop participant finding a wayfinding "tag" as a result of following a successful map drawing drawn by another participant.
Close-up of a map drawing completed by a workshop participant.
Workshop participants walking around Chapman University following maps drawn by other Close-up of a map drawing completed by a workshop participant. in the wayfinding activity.
Tingyi Lin drawing a map.
Claudine Jaenichen giving a lecture on cognition and information processing in times of crisis.
Claudine Jaenichen giving a lecture on cognition and information processing in times of crisis and showing a close-up an evacuation map.
The hands of several workshop participants brainstorming ideas as notes and drawings on a big white sheet of paper.
The hands of a workshop participant recreating visual icons.
Rodrigo Ramirez working with a group on visual icons.

Ramirez

Room full of workshop participants working with visual icons printed on bright yellow paper.
Room full of workshop participants working with visual icons printed on bright yellow paper.
Saskia van Manen showing results of icon storytelling exercise.
Room full of workshop participants working with visual storytelling exercise.
Klaus Kremer giving a talk on rapid prototyping.

Special thank you for the funding support from Chapman’s Faculty Research and Development Committee, the Office of the Provost, the Dean’s Office, and the Art Department.

The Moulton Hall building at Chapman University where the workshop took place.
Tingyi Lin, Klaus Kremer, and Saskia van Manen listening to a talk during the workshop.

The executive board visited Laguna Beach before everyone went back to their home countries.

The Executive Board of Directors sitting on the sand at Laguna Beach.

© 2018 Photos courtesy of Julia Ross, Saskia van Manen and Sam White.

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