How might we encourage forecasters to reduce technical jargon and uphold plain language standards

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How might we encourage forecasters to reduce technical jargon and uphold plain language standards #75

Open colinmurphy01 opened 1 year ago

colinmurphy01 commented 1 year ago

Description

We heard that forecasters often use technical jargon in how they communicate weather, which creates an impediment to user understanding.

Related Boulder: #55

Questions to consider

[ ] why do they depend on technical weather jargon
[ ] do the tools or processes perpetuate this behavior
[ ] is it words, concepts, phrasing
[ ] how might we change it

Research considerations

Do we want to utilize our onsite to understand this more? #71
Who do we want to speak to?

### Pebbles
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colinmurphy01 commented 1 year ago

From Shad in slack Here's some relevant policy that governs Area Forecast Discussion (AFDs). I've asked many if they prefer to use plain language or technical when they write AFDs, and often those that use a lot of technical will say b/c other meteorologists are reading it (e.g. TV mets) or b/c it serves as good read-in for the next shift at the WFO. You'll notice on page 6 there's no mention of impacts. This may be a case of being aware of policy but not letting it dictate the future of weather.gov 2.0. I don't think this policy supports effective communication to public/EMs. https://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/sym/pd01005003curr.pdf

colinmurphy01 commented 1 year ago

Need to understand first

Day in the life of a forecaster - what resources they currently have, what's helpful/not, formatting
Understanding of what we are building ideally for weather.gov 2.0
Understanding of the CMS capabilities that are available

Then we will rescope this research to be more targeted

colinmurphy01 commented 1 year ago

This could be something we explore in later rounds of research with forecasters (possibly paired with CMS exploration)