User-Centered Fire Emergency Response System Design for Presenting BIM and IoT Data

Abstract

Advanced technologies, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT), can supply information for decision-making during a fire emergency. However, the data retrieved fails to cover all the critical knowledge required for situational awareness or fails to present to the users in a usable and effective way. This study aims to develop an effective user interface for a Fire Emergency Response System (FERS) based on BIM and IoT technologies to provide the information required for situational awareness. The study uses the User-Centered Design (UCD) method to achieve this aim and develops the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the FERS based on the identified information requirements. To evaluate the usability of the developed GUI and to finalize the design, the feedback from the experts was retrieved via recordings when they were using the prototype and a combined usability questionnaire of Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) and After-Scenario Questionnaire (ASQ). The findings illustrate that the GUI successfully presented the information to meet the user goals and has the potential to significantly improve the efficacy of fire responding operations and minimize the risk of loss of life and property damage.

Keywords:

• Graphical user interface
• User-centered design
• fire emergency response
• BIM
• IoT
• situational awareness

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department experts who participated in the iterative design process for their valuable opinions and collaboration.

Authors contributions

Sanam Rezaeifam: Conceptualization, Definition of Methodology, Investigation, Validation, Writing - Original Draft, Visualization

Esin Ergen: Conceptualization, Writing - Reviewing & Editing

Hüsnü Murat Günaydın: Supervision, Project administration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sanam Rezaeifam

Sanam Rezaeifam is in project construction management from Istanbul Technical University. Her research interests lie in BIM-IoT-enabled user interfaces, information systems usability for project management, and Human-Computer Interaction.

Esin Ergen

Esin Ergen is in the Civil Engineering Department at Istanbul Technical University. Her research focuses on digitalization in the construction industry and BIM adoption in construction and facilities management phases, including streamlining information flow and operations in construction supply chains via advanced technologies.

Hüsnü Murat Günaydın

Hüsnü Murat Günaydın is in the Architecture Department at İstanbul Technical University. His research focuses on project management systems, machine learning, and organizations.