Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

DOI

10.1145/2792989.2792992

Publication Title

Communication Design Quarterly

Volume

3

Issue

3

Pages

20-24

Conference Name

Symposium on Communicating Complex Information

Abstract

This paper explores the potential for technical communicators to employ usability research with risk-based interactive geovisualization technologies as a method of cultivating "critical rhetorics of risk communication" for local communities. Through integrating theories from usability studies and risk communication, I offer some new directions for thinking about the productive usability of online, participatory technologies that promote citizen engagement in science. I argue that the key tenets of productive usability afford technical communicators the opportunity to build localized knowledge of risk in real, local users, which in turn improves the capacity for a community and its stakeholders to more effectively communicate risk.

Comments

© 2015 by the author.

Included with the kind written permission of the author.

ORCID

0000-0003-2155-3416 (Richards)

Original Publication Citation

Richards, D. (2015). Testing the waters: local users, sea level rise, and the productive usability of interactive geovisualizations. Communication Design Quarterly, 3(3), 20–24. doi:10.1145/2792989.2792992

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