Citizens' Perceived Information Responsibilities and Information Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bridging from Crisis to Everyday Life – An Analysis of User Reviews of the Warning App NINA and the COVID-19 Regulation Apps CoroBuddy and DarfIchDas

“…Similar to CoroBuddy, the accuracy and validity of the portrayed rules and data are often questioned (118). A dominant complaint concerned that the rules displayed were too general (22) and that local rules were only available through website links (16) or could not be found at all (14). At the same time, the many details listed required extensive reading: ("Only the texts of the regulation are reproduced, but not what specifically applies at my location today" DGb32).…”

“…Citizens' information needs increased and remained high, particularly as the first measures against COVID-19 were announced [39], but uncertain, contradictory, overly complex, changing, and inaccurate information posed challenges [43]. Information about restrictions was strongly sought out, surpassed only by inquiries about the spread of the virus [10], but Germans were particularly challenged by the differences in regulation across the country [22] since measures are mainly implemented federally in a decentralized manner leading to great local variation [23]. Germans perceived a responsibility to stay informed about current regulations, but held agencies as co-responsible and expected them to provide adequate information [22,45].…”

“…Information about restrictions was strongly sought out, surpassed only by inquiries about the spread of the virus [10], but Germans were particularly challenged by the differences in regulation across the country [22] since measures are mainly implemented federally in a decentralized manner leading to great local variation [23]. Germans perceived a responsibility to stay informed about current regulations, but held agencies as co-responsible and expected them to provide adequate information [22,45]. Particularly when perceiving a need to stay informed and lacking an information strategy [47], information overload can occur.…”

“…Research suggests that even during the COVID-19 crisis, pandemics were infrequently mentioned as hazards that should be included in a multi-hazard warning app [12]. Such warning apps, like NINA, were largely not perceived as filling the information needs in a study in April 2020 [22]. Studies suggest that warning apps should on the one hand contain all relevant topics, while at the same time notifications that are perceived as irrelevant strongly reduce usability [51].…”