Fire simulation-based adaptation of SmartRescue App for serious game: Design, setup and user experience

Managing the crisis by embracing game and simulation elements and human participation into an interactive system is a mean to learn about responding to unexpected events. This so-called serious game approach is adopted in a summer school for crisis management attended by doctoral students and practitioners, as a part of its learning curriculum. The participants took part in the Disaster in my Backyard serious game, designed as a realistic crisis environment. A smartphone app encompassing fire simulations of a five-story apartment, showing how the flame, smoke and temperature of the fire developed over time from floor to floor, was tested in this serious game scenario. The color-coding of smoke and temperature information indicating the danger levels was used as a guide and decision support for the rescue team to evacuate victims out of the burning apartment. In this paper, we elaborate the underlying technology, design, and setup of the app. Finally, we discuss the evaluation of the user experience, and the merits and shortcomings of the app for search and rescue activity in a serious game fire situation.