Designing a Crisis Management Mobile Application Solution in Nigeria.

Investment in societal safety has become paramount as the world gets more exposed to disaster and crisis. The aim of this paper is to improve the crisis communication management using mobile technologies based on the case of Lagos state in Nigeria. The research follows design science methodology and we use qualitative and quantitative data collection methods to meet the objectives of the study. To propose the most suitable mobile based solution, we investigated crisis communication environment in the Lagos state and map the user expectations via survey. We use expert interviews to validate the designed solution. As a result we proposed a citizen-centered crisis management mobile application prototype (CrisisIT) that enables easy information exchange between the crisis management authorities and the citizens. In addition to the basic functionalities of notifications, calls and messages, the solution enables to upload videos and trigger a notification to the emergency team with location address via an analytical tool connected to the national and state emergency rescue team technical infrastructure.