Book excerpt: This guidebook presents the contents of the first Design Network for Emergency Management (DNEM) workshop on Design for emergency management. Intended for emergency managers and other interested parties, this guidebook provides an easily accessible overview of visual language, iconography, cognition in emergencies, rapid prototyping, evaluation and ethics.Each of these topics warrants a full book and course in its own right, and neither the workshop nor this guidebook can do justice to the breadth and depth of these subjects. However, we aim to introduce you to some key ideas, and provide you with easy-to-use tools to incorporate these design concepts into your day-to-day work.