Pictograms and assessment categories as crisis communication language: Lessons from a field exercise with GDACSmobile

In this article we explore how pictograms and assessment categories used by crisis management organizations support crisis communication with the affected population. In this field exercise simulating a flooding event, the exemplary tool GDACSmobile was used to let volunteers report their observations to the crisis management center using a report in which they assigned the category they believed was most fitting to the situation at hand. Despite volunteers reporting difficulty in selecting a fitting category, their actual decisions fit well with the intended categories defined by the crisis managers. From this, we have learned that pictograms and categories have potential to become a common language between crisis managers and the affected population, thus supporting effective crisis communication.