Carrie Kramlich says she was in a local doctor’s office when an alert about a nearby fire came through the app. Watch Duty’s distinctive custom alert sound chimed not just for her, but for several other people in the room. They looked around, laughed about it, and got to talking.
“We were all really happy that we all had it,” Kramlich says. “It said something about the people in that room. That we’ve been through something and that we’re paying attention.”
The distinct sound was created by Sixième Son and its sensitive design works to alert people without alarming them. You can hear the sound the patients heard here.
Watch Duty, the crowdsourced fire-watch app has been downloaded all over California and is being recognized as the most focused fire information source up and down the state.
With the lengthening fire season, the alert sound will unfortunately become all too familiar.
Read the full article from WIRED here.
Photo by Mike Newbry on Unsplash.