Emergency management information systems: Could decision makers be supported in choosing display formats?

Recent information technologies make it possible to include sophisticated three-dimensional display formats in emergency management information systems (EMIS), decision-support systems that facilitate decision making in crisis situations. However, if decision makers are to improve their decisional performance, they must correctly identify appropriate situations for using these formats. We conduct two experiments and find that, as prior research has suggested, decision makers do not choose the most appropriate display format, but their performance improves when given prospective decisional guidance. We discuss implications of these findings for EMIS design, for the training of emergency management professionals, and for future research on display formats and decisional guidance.

► We conduct two experiments and find that, as prior research has suggested, decision makers do not choose the most appropriate display format.
► Decision makers' performance improves when given prospective decisional guidance.
► Novice EMIS users without prior training might be under the influence of idiosyncratic graphical preferences, display selection inertia, or naïve realism.