PSCR Usability Results Tool:
Voices of First Responders
Results of a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews with first responders
across the U.S. about their communication technology use.
The Usability Team of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program works to identify issues faced by first responders surrounding the use of their existing and emerging public safety communication technology. The Usability Team conducted a series of in-depth interviews with approximately 200 first responders about their views on communication technology. The results of these interviews informed a nationwide, large-scale survey completed by over 7,000 first responders. This tool provides public access to over 20,000 first responder quotes from the first responder interview data, as well as the 7,182 survey responses. This tool also provides a means to analyze the survey results, creating charts and tables dynamically based on filter selections.
The survey results, accessed via the Survey Results Tool and the Survey Analyzer Tool, and the interview quotes, available via the Interview Quotes Tool, can be freely used to influence the research, design and development of communication technology in the public safety domain. Any interview quotes or survey results used in published materials should properly attribute this tool as well as the appropriate NISTIR reports in the series of volumes published as detailed in the Interview Quotes Tool FAQ as well as the Survey Results Tool FAQ and the Survey Analyzer Tool FAQ. Information about the research methodology and instrument design for both the interview and survey protocols, as well as instructions on how to interpret the results, can also be found in these FAQs.
For more information about the NIST PSCR Usability Team research, or for questions regarding the PSCR Usability Results Tool, please send an email to usability@nist.gov. For our Voices of First Responders report series, visit: https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/user-interface-user-experience-publications. More information about the PSCR program can be found at pscr.gov.
Disclaimer: This tool has been optimized for use with the Google Chrome web browser. It is not intended for use on mobile devices. All interview recordings were transcribed by a professional transcription service; as such, the accuracy of transcription text is dependent on the transcriber. To protect the identity of the first responders interviewed and surveyed, all interview quotes and open-ended survey responses have been reviewed for personally identifiable information (PII) and all identifiers redacted. Due to the large size of the interview dataset, context and/or descriptions of participant quotes may have slight inaccuracies. Any mention of commercial products or reference to commercial organizations is for information only; it does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the products mentioned are necessarily the best available for the purpose.