Visual preferences in urban signscapes

This research looked at the role of sign obtrusiveness and complexity in th e perception and evaluation of urban signscapes. It obtained independent sc ores for features of 19 signscapes. One group of 30 persons judged physical features of 19 color photographs of retail sign scenes. One opportunity sa mple of 56 persons sorted the scenes into groups and then scored the groups for preference. A random cluster sample of 50 persons sorted the scenes fo r preference and rated each scene on several evaluative scales. From the tw o Q-sorts, the authors derived similarity scores between scenes and used th em in a nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis to find the dimensions of perception. Sign obtrusiveness related to Dimensions 1 and 2, and sign c omplexity related at a marginally significant level to Dimension 4. The stu dy also looked at the relation of these two variables to preference. It fou nd preference associated with reductions in sign obtrusiveness.