Study of Multidimensional Design Approaches to Emergency Signage

Abstract

Emergency signage is key to helping occupants of a building find a safe route in situations involving circulation and evacuation. This study acknowledged existing problems with interpretation of emergency signage and the fact that emergency signage is often overlooked because of which the recent years witnessed an increase in disaster incidents caused by signage misconception. Thus, the study examined interpretation factors in the current design of emergency sign age to provide a design reference for emergency signage that positively promotes accuracy of individuals’ perception of information conveyed. An examination procedure called “interpretation of direction information experiment” was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of emergency signage and multidimensional signage by evaluating a set of questionnaire responses, an additional in in-depth interview process was also included. A “descriptive response of signage meaning experiment” and a “direction selecting experiment” were additionally conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency signage and multidimensional signage through stimulation of emergency evacuation tests. Data were first collected and then analyzed to indicate and identify significant points for the improvement of emergency signage by using the repeated analysis of variance (ANOVA). An analysis through the eye eye-tracking data method was also conducted. The descriptive response of signage meaning test revealed that multidimensional design approaches for emergency signage promoted a successful rate of information perception and comprehension recorded at an average of 9 94.25 %. The analyzed eye-tracking data showed that multidimensional signage positively benefited participants’ perception of directional information by decreasing the time needed to perceive the information at an average of 31.57% compared to the average time span recorded for the British format of emergency signage. The overall results indicated a design reference for signage development to improve occupants’ ability to navigate and find a designated safe location as well as assist viewers in their way finding process, respectively.