How Users of a Smartphone Weather Application Are Influenced by Animated Announcements Conveying Rainfall Intensity and Electronic Gifts Promoting Rain Evacuation

Abstract

In this study, we assumed that animated announcements that conveyed rainfall intensity of localized heavy rain and the distribution of electronic gifts to encourage rain evacuation would promote evacuation actions. If evacuation actions could be promoted through these methods, then the transmission of weather information could be improved. Therefore, we modified the features of a weather information application for smartphones, which was already widely used, and conducted a demonstrative experiment with application users who agreed to participate in order to check the validity. We analyzed users’ behaviors by transmitting information regarding the predicted start time of rain and recording the Global Positioning System coordinates of the users’ smartphones. In addition, a questionnaire survey was administered to the users after the experiment to collect data on their conception of rainfall intensity. The participants were also interviewed. The results of the experiment showed a significant difference in user conception of rainfall intensity depending on whether they had viewed the animation. However, a behavior analysis based on location data showed no statistical bias in the relationship between the animation and rain evacuation behavior.