Factors affecting noticeability of directional signs in the Philippines

• Main Authors: Bornilla, David Angelo L., Despues, Danna Ariane M., Tiong, Joselisa Shiela Mary L.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Signs and signboards; Industrial Engineering; Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/13280
• Institution: De La Salle University

Directional signages are traditionally seen as a tool for helping people navigate their way around unfamiliar environments but as we turn to the mobile era, directional signages are gaining new perspectives from different fields such as Economics, Sociology, Geography as well as Cultural Studies. Directional signages evolved to be the manifestation, the interface of the social relationship between humans and their environment. It transforms places into passages, striates space into controlled flows, and urges the travelers to 'move on'. That provides the navigational and behavioral guidance that is increasingly in evidence, in all public spaces. This paper focuses on one of the most ubiquitous characteristic of the signages: its noticeability. As the theorization of the concepts involving the control of mobility and attention is now being linked in places which are employing a number of methods that engineer affects. The study evaluates the visual interaction between the environment and their users through directional signages. Elements of directional signs such as the Presence of Pictorial Symbol, Text Height, Presence of Borders, Color Contrast and Arrow Type are simultaneously evaluated to determine the optimal combination of the said directional sign elements that affects the noticeability in the design of directional signage. The study takes control of the most common elements of a signage and set guidelines for a more attention grabbing signages that will minimize the possibility of being lost due to unnoticeable directional signs and increase the productivity of its users.