Supporting DSS Acceptability through a User-Centered Design Methodology: Experiences in Emergency Management Pietro BARONI a , Daniela FOGLI a , Massimiliano GIACOMIN a , Giovanni GUIDA a , Loredana PARASILITI PROVENZA a,1 , Michele ROSSI a , Marko BOHANEC b and Martin ŽNIDARŠIČ b a Università di Brescia, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Italy b Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia Abstract. This paper presents a user-centered design methodology for Decision Support Systems (DSSs), which is specifically built to face the socio-technical gap that often impedes DSS acceptability by end users in real work environments. The methodology has been experimented in two case studies in the field of health- related emergencies, namely earthquake and pandemic flu management. Methodology application and results are described with specific focus on the phases of requirement analysis and system evaluation. Keywords. User-centered design, decision support systems, requirement analysis, evaluation, socio-technical gap, emergency management. Introduction Health threats are events that may have serious adverse effects on human health such as epidemic or pandemic infections, biological or radiological terrorist attacks, earthquakes and other hazardous natural events. In such situations, formalizing well- defined emergency plans and establishing emergency management teams are crucial for assuring a coordinated and effective response to what could be a catastrophic event [1]. Members of emergency teams usually include several experts and operators from different fields and work contexts, from medical communities to public health and public safety agencies, organized at national, regional, and local levels. They have different roles and responsibilities in managing an emergency, as well as different perspectives on the emergency event itself and its possible effects. In particular, in emergency management teams, crisis managers play an important role for effectively responding to emergency situations. They are not involved in operative tasks but are in charge of all the decisions necessary to select, prepare and carry out operative actions. They are typically active 24 hours a day even for rather long periods of time, and operate under pressure, stress, and responsibility overload. In their job, they have to apply stated emergency plans, comply with formal regulations, and promptly respond to several inputs arriving from the upper management at local, 1 Corresponding Author. Università degli Studi di Brescia, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy; E-mail: loredana.parasiliti@ing.unibs.it.