SAFETY SYMBOLS IN ANSI AND ISO VOLUNTARY STANDARDS -DO PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THEM?

摘要

This paper presents the results of two studies which comprehension tested safety symbols inpublished ANSI and ISO voluntary standards. Study 1 tested safety symbols from the ANSIZ535.3 Criteria for Safety Symbols standard. Study 2 tested additional safety symbols from theANSI Z535.3 standard as well as additional symbols from the ISO 7010 safety symbols standard.Overall, comprehension of the symbols in both studies was relatively poor. Only two of thetwelve symbols tested in Study 1 and five of the fourteen symbols tested in Study 2 met ANSIZ535.3 acceptance criteria. Adding red to hazard alerting symbols to depict heat improvedcomprehension, but adding color and determinants to information symbols did not. Implicationsof these results for future revisions of the ANSI Z535.3 standard are discussed.