A review of wildland fire smartphone applications: A classification study from Australia, USA, Canada and South Africa

Abstract

Purpose

Fire management professionals are using smartphone applications to communicate information about wildland fires. The purpose of this paper is to examine English language wildland fire apps available to the general public to learn what information these apps contain and whether they match what are considered characteristics of well-designed apps.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis of global app markets and other directories revealed ten relevant apps. Two coders installed the apps on identical smartphones and proceeded to review the apps’ content, features, and design characteristics.

Findings

Results reveal that the ten English language wildland fire apps on the global app markets fall into three groups: apps that show nearby fires, emergency plan creation apps, and apps that inform on preparedness, response, and recovery. Strengths of these apps include that most load quickly on devices, they offer real-time contextual information, they can be used even when a device is offline, are easy to navigate, and do not utilize processor-intensive animation. Weaknesses include the fact that many lack a search engine, they do not explain how they protect sensitive user data, and they fail to reveal who authors of content are as well as when content was created or modified.

Originality/value

Few studies have classified, analyzed content, or assessed the design of wildland fire apps. This study reveals that critical issues app designers should address include ensuring that apps contain privacy policies and disclaimers that app information is not supposed to replace live human advice.

Citation

Kulemeka, O. (2015), "A review of wildland fire smartphone applications: A classification study from Australia, USA, Canada and South Africa", International Journal of Emergency Services, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 258-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJES-07-2014-0010