Bangladesh Emergency Services
Md Monsur Hossain, Moushumi Sharmin, Shameem Ahmed · 2018
We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of Bangladesh Emergency Services (BES), a mobile application that provides 911-like services in Bangladesh. The involvement of A2I, a government agency, helped in the nationwide deployment of BES. To date, 120,382 unique users downloaded BES and 27,117 users are actively using it. Analysis of user ratings (N=3,788) and reviews (N=1,231) from Google Play Store, an online survey (N=137), and face-to-face interviews (N=10) revealed that users considered BES effective. Currently, BES is used to report aggressive behavior, street fight, harassment, fire-related incidents, and for locating nearby hospitals for medical emergencies. Our findings highlight the importance of trustworthiness, scalability of service, and iterative and participatory design for successful deployment of such services. We believe our research will inspire the design of mobile-based emergency applications in other developing countries that lack 911-like services.