With the increase in digital communications systems and social media, there is a need for simple graphics-based ways to signal the occurrence of major disasters. We describe the development and initial usability testing of a sign to indicate that an earthquake has occurred. We involved 264 Italian adults, who completed an online survey to evaluate the evocativeness, simplicity, and universality of 16 emojis depicting earthquakes. Through a Self-Organising Map analysis we identified four similar response profiles to the evocativeness scale, differing in their mean strength. A non-metric Multidimensional Scaling suggested that evocativeness was higher for the emojis featuring a damaged building. Linear Mixed Models indicated that emojis with fabricated vs. natural structures were judged as more evocative, simpler, and more universal when characterized by danger from falling objects. In some cases, adding behavioral elements increased evocativeness. Practical implications for informing the development of a new emoji for earthquakes are discussed.

随着数字通信系统和社交媒体的增加，需要一种基于图形的简单方式来表示重大灾难的发生。我们描述了指示地震发生的信号的发展和初始可用性测试。我们邀请了264名意大利成年人参加，他们完成了一项在线调查，以评估16种描述地震的表情符号的唤起性，简单性和普遍性。通过自组织图分析，我们确定了四个与唤起力等级相似的反应曲线，其平均强度不同。非度量多维缩放比例表明，具有受损建筑物的表情符号的唤起性更高。线性混合模型表明，具有虚构结构与自然结构的表情符号被认为更具启发性，更简单，并具有坠落物体带来的危险时更普遍。在某些情况下，添加行为元素会提高唤起力。讨论了有关开发地震新表情符号的实际意义。