Comprehension of newly introduced water-sport prohibitive signs in Korea by westerners

Abstract

The use of pictogram for prohibitive warning signs has become prevalent during the last decades since it allows international communication, and is substantial to avoid unsafe situations in public places. Although in reality these pictograms are often accompanied by text or messages to prevent people from misunderstanding the intended meaning of the symbols, there are a lot of risks of poorly designed signs being misunderstood by their intended users, especially those who are not natives. This study was aimed to examine how well a group of newly introduced water-sport prohibitive signs by MKE of Korea could be comprehended by foreigners who reside in Korea. To address this issue, an experimental study was conducted with forty Westerners. Fourteen newly introduced water sport safety signs were used as stimuli. Guessability scores were collected during the experiment, together with five cognitive sign features and detailed participants' feedback for each sign. The results showed that out of fourteen signs, only three signs conform to both ISO and ANSI requirements for safety symbols. Among five cognitive sign features, meaningfulness was found to be the best predictor for guessability score, followed by semantic closeness. Finally, by utilizing ergonomic design principles and feedback from participants, poorly comprehended signs were redesigned.