Communication effectiveness of symbolic safety signs with different user groups
✍ Scribed by P. Cairney; D. Sless
- Book ID
- 102988424
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1982
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 829 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0003-6870
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Contrary to popular belief, little systematic evaluation has been undertaken of how well public information signs convey their intended message. The application of a proposed evaluation procedure, involving an initial Recognition Test and a subsequent Recall Test, to a set of occupational safety signs is reported. Respondents comprised migrants and native-born Australians attending adult literacy classes, including a group of recently-arrived Vietnamese. Despite inter-group differences in the total number of signs correctly identified on both Recognition and Recall Tests, the same signs gave rise to difficulty for all groups. The sources of difficulty are discussed in terms of distinctiveness of referents, comprehension of shape and colour code, and translation from symbol to referent. The implications of the test results for user education programmes is also considered.