Communication Design Quarterly Aug 2017 Open Access

Responding to public health crises: bridging collective mindfulness and user experience to create communication interventions

Elizabeth L. Angeli Marquette University ; Christina D. Norwood Johns Hopkins University

Abstract

This paper examines how the cognitive framework of collective mindfulness complements tenets of user experience in public health crisis communication. Collective mindfulness attunes an organization into preemptively identifying and avoiding potential failures that can have adverse safety and public relations outcomes. To illustrate the connection between this cognitive framework and user experience, this article shares findings from a case study with the 2014 Johns Hopkins Medicine Ebola Crisis Communications Team, whose primary goals were to improve the usability of Ebola personal protective equipment protocols and to prepare healthcare providers for a U.S. Ebola crisis. Based on a grounded theory investigation, this article suggests that the collective mindfulness principles of deference to expertise, resilience, and refusal to simplify complex procedures informed the team's ability to avoid a catastrophic communication failure. Additionally, these principles allowed the team to attune to key user experience principles, including addressing user context and user limitations.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2017-08-04
DOI
10.1145/3131201.3131204
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Topics
technical communication qualitative research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Kirkscey (2021)
    mHealth Apps for Older Adults: A Method for Development and User Experience Des…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Arduser (2018)
    Impatient patients: a DIY usability approach in diabetes wearable technologies
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