EFFECTIVENESS OF ELEVATOR SERVICE SIGNS - MEASUREMENT OF PERCEIVED UNDERSTANDABILITY, WILLINGNESS TO COMPLY AND BEHAVIOR

This research examines the effectiveness of four elevator service sign s, The signs' purpose is to reduce delays for longer distance riders b y dissuading people from using the elevator when they are only going u p one floor or down two floors, Three of the four signs were described in Chapanis' (1965, Human Factors 7, 1-17) seminal treatise entitled 'Words, words, words...': an original sign and two others that he sugg ested as possibly being better, The fourth was an enhanced sign incorp orating human factor principles that were derived from research since Chapanis' article, The enhancements involved the use of colour, a sign al word panel, icons/pictorial, and direct, explicit wording of the re quired behaviour, In Experiment 1, participants rated the understandab ility of each sign and their willingness to obey its instructions, The pattern of the means was the same for both questions, The original si gn was rated lowest and the enhanced sign was rated highest, with the two other signs receiving intermediate ratings, In Experiment 2, the s igns were placed on each floor of six multi-story buildings adjacent t o the elevator call buttons, People's use of the elevators during the posting of each sign and during no-sign (control) periods was measured ,The experimenter rode the elevators and counted the total number of p assengers using the elevators as well as the number who rode up only o ne floor or down one or two floors (noncompliers), The new enhanced si gn increased compliance compared to the other three signs and the no-s ign period, These results suggest that design principles derived from recent research can help to promote comprehension, motivation and comp liance behaviour to signs. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.