• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.65-74
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• 2019

The safety and health signs as an important communication tool can help employees recognize the harm and risk information and take proper actions easily and fast. This study investigated the management of safety and health signs in 75 workplaces and also conducted a survey for the level of subjective comprehension of safety and health signs with 150 employees in Korea. In total, 69 safety and health signs containing alternative signs by KS S ISO 7010 were used for the survey for the ease of comprehension. At the results, the frequency of education on the signs was relatively high, but it was difficult to systematically manage those in the small-sized workplaces. In addition, the results of the ease of comprehension survey showed that proportion of alternative signs was high in the upper rank, and also several alternative signs showed significantly high mean compared with safety and health signs. And the means of alternative signs tended to have higher at the categories of prohibition, instruction, and guidance. Although there are some methodological limitations, it is important that the recent management and the level of comprehension for safety and health signs were empirically identified.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.473-481
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• 2006

Readability, an indicator measuring the easiness of reading letters, has been known an important element that determines the communicative effectiveness of the self-guided interpretive signs. However, there are few studies to find out how the readability of the signs influence visitor's attraction and reading behavior of interpretive signs. This study examined the relationship between readability of interpretive signs and attraction, preferences, and intent to recommend reading signs to others. Data were collected from August to November of 2003 at a self-guided trail of Naejangsan National Park, Korea. 350 out of 375 responses from subjects who participated in the questionnaire survey were usable. Results showed that readability of the signs is related with the attraction, preferences, and intention of recommending reading signs to others. The higher the readability of the signs were, the higher the attraction, preferences, and intention of recommending reading signs were. Attraction and preferences were also positively related with intention of recommending reading signs. Preferences better explained intention of recommending reading signs than readability and attraction. These findings suggest that enhancing readability of the signs may lead to higher participation in reading them.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.123-140
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• 2019

This study analyzed problems of interpretive signs along Eorimok-Yeongsil Trail on Mt. Hallasan National Park, focusing on factors of distracting visitor's attention from reading and understanding the signs. Eorimok-Yeongsil Trail has a total of 86 signs, and according to their purpose and content, they are classified into thirteen general signs, sixteen location signs, nine safety signs and forty-eight interpretive signs. Interpretive signs provide visitors with information and explanations about the nature and human resources of Mt. Hallasan as well as enhancing the opportunity for self-guided interpretation. The contents of interpretive signs of Eorimok-Yeongsil Trail are composed of landscapes, flora and fauna, topography, geology, history and culture, of which 70.8% of the total are related to plants and animals. Interpretive signs on the Eorimok-Yeongsil Trail do not attract visitors' attention because of the low readability, inappropriate locations and frequent errors in translation from Korean into other languages. The causes of low readability of interpretive signs include thirty-six physically damaged and faded signs, twenty-two improper font sizes and misuse of color schemes and five unclear description signs. The reasons for the incorrect locations include twenty-two long distances from the trails, twenty-one inadequate heights and fifteen inconsistencies in descriptions and locations. Problems with English use include eight grammar and spelling errors, twenty-one incorrect translations, and twenty-six English names missing.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.604-609
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• 2019

A variety of complaints about road signs have occurred for various reasons, such as new road facilities, new road signs such as road name signs, and an increase in nearby important facilities. In addition, there are many road signs that are in violation of road sign regulations. The basic principles of road signs, the connectivity of guide names, the location suitability, and a consistent road sign guidance system have not implemented. To solve these problems, various errors were investigated on major road signs on eight national highways, including direction signs, distance signs, boundary signs, and route signs. In addition, we classified the errors on road signs by grade to give them maintenance priority. We also analyzed the error status of signs for each route and grade. Based on the data, the problems of the road signs were derived, and an improvement plan is discussed. Based on this research, more systematic installation and management of road signs through cooperation between the government and local governments could increase the efficiency of road signs, as well as provide safer and more convenient road sign guidance systems for road users.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.111-118
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• 2008

In usual safety signs are final means to transmit hazard information so that the importance of them cannot be emphasized too much. Nevertheless, in Korea, few people are interested in functions of safety signs so that evaluation of safety signs are seldom committed. This research was conducted to evaluate and compare perceptional characteristics of safety signs, especially "Fall" signs, by Semantic Differential Method and Multi-dimensional Scaling Method, with undergraduate students as well as industrial workers. According to research results on several signs evaluated high through suggested procedure, action inducibility was different for students majoring in different sciences, but it had common elements in the sense of 'openness' or 'arrangements'. Besides, perceptional images on safety signs were mainly recognized with bases of 'arrangement' for student group and 'simplicity' for industrial workers, respectively, and their maps corresponded well with each other by partial rotating so that students and workers seemed to recognize safety signs with similar factors though their name might be different. However, since perceptional characteristics including image map, comprehensibility, and action inducibility were similar for student group whereas those were not for worker group, it was concluded that the test for action inducibility would be absolutely necessary for safety signs for workers' group.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.96-101
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• 2007

Usually pictograms embedded in safety signs are such final means to transmit hazard information that the importance of them cannot be emphasized too much. Nevertheless, in Korea, few people are interested in safety signs and their functions so that evaluation of safety signs are seldom committed nor safety signs draw workers' attention to fulfill their functions. Therefore this research aimed to standardize the procedure for developing safety signs in order not only to give practical help to industrial workers but to match them international standards, and to develop a few examples through the suggested standard procedure. As results, a procedure for developing industrial safety signs was developed by combining both ANSI Z535.3 and ISO 9186 with a special emphasis on action inducibility as the former emphasized as well as comprehensibility as the latter suggested. According to test results with undergraduate students as well as industrial workers on a few signs developed through the suggested procedure, action inducibility was higher whereas confusion rate was lower than expected on one hand, and it could be concluded that the procedure would supply results that can be satisfied on the other hand.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.4 s.76
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• pp.119-126
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• 2006

Though safety signs are important since they transmit hazard information even after diverse accident prevention treatments, their functional effectiveness were never tested in Korea so that even those provided by Occupational Safety & Health Act(OSHAct) could not accomplish their objectives, "effective accident prevention", This research was carried out to understand confronted problems and improvement direction for safety signs provided by OSHAct. For them, current safety signs were analyzed with a semiotic view on one hand, and a questionnaire survey was conducted with safety-related people in industrial fields on the other hand. To summarize problems in semiotic aspects, geometric simplicity of pictograms in safety signs seemed to be so emphasized that they might fail to induce realistic action, and their esthetic sensation seemed to be lower than those of developed countries. And according to present questionnaire survey, it was pointed out that; 1) legal systems related with safety signs were not classified appropriately, 2) safety signs were recognized as difficult to understand and inapplicable to industrial fields, and eventually 3) safety signs were not effectively utilized for industrial accident prevention. Therefore, discussions for improving confronted problems and relation to international standards were added at the end.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.131-141
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• 2016

PURPOSES : While road networks are becoming increasingly complex, traffic signs are being indiscriminately installed and operated, which makes drivers who depend on traffic signs to reach their destination confused and unable to understand road information efficiently. In order to promptly and exactly guide road users to their destinations, traffic signs should be able to satisfy the functions of connectivity, visibility, and location suitability. However, the results of a site survey shows that most of the traffic signs currently installed in the Jeollanam-do Province do not satisfy these functions. METHODS : This study analyzed the problems of traffic signs after an actual site survey and focused on a total on 9,353 traffic signs and 70 road routes in Jeollanam-do Province. RESULTS : This study analyzed the problems of traffic signs based on their required functions (connectivity, visibility, suitability) and suggested improvements by establishing a guide system that considered the problems found in the study. CONCLUSIONS : The guide system can be utilized as a basic material that provides efficient road information for future installation and maintenance of traffic signs in Jeollanam-do Province.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.2D
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• pp.275-283
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• 2006

Recently, there are increasing needs to provide sufficient information on road signs for expanding cities and traffic networks. Improving efficiency of direction guidance information from road signs not only requires criteria for but also systematic approach to selecting place names that appear on road sings. As such, this paper looks at road direction information from existing road signs that leads to Suwon and investigates whether the current system of road sings provides efficient, systematic and continuous direction information for road users to easily reach their destination. In this paper, Suwon's city hall is set up as the final destination, which is linked from five other cities, Euiwang, Ansan, Hwaseong, Osan and Yongin. The paper attempts to find out whether there is continuity and suitable number of road signs for direction information by analyzing the road signs between these 5 cities and Suwon with respect to direction, direction advance notice and direction guidance. It is found that road users cannot easily find the needed information on their destination from the existing road signs and that continuity of selected place names that systematically appear on road signs is insufficiency. That is to say, the findings of the paper are that while it is easy for road users to find place names that are classified under land marks or the first-class selection of place names on road signs, it is difficult to obtain information from road signs on place names that are grouped under the second or third class. In addition, direction guidance on road signs is problematic, because the appearance frequency of road signs is not adequate and the continuity of road signs is not effective. Moreover, there is insufficient information on local direction guidance for immediate destinations on road signs with respect to turning left or right or going straight. Hence road signs in urban area need systematic improvement to find easily some destination.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 2015

Objective: The goal of this study is to evaluate the comprehensibility of the newly introduced water-sport prohibitive signs by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE, later merged into the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) among Koreans and westerners, and to check whether the comprehensibility is affected by cultural differences. Background: The Ministry of Knowledge Economy had newly introduced fourteen water-sport prohibitive signs at the end of 2011 to alert people to potentially dangerous situations. However, no studies had been found so far to review or assess their comprehensibility. Method: Comprehensibility tests of fourteen water-sport prohibitive signs were conducted with forty Koreans and forty Westerners in two sequential sessions. In session I, participants were asked to guess the meaning of each sign verbally in an open-ended test. In session II, participants were encouraged to provide feedback for each sign after its intended meaning was given. Results: Only two out of fourteen signs satisfied the comprehension rate (67%) recommended by ISO standard for both groups (Koreans and Westerners). Cultural difference between Koreans and westerners significantly affect the comprehension rates of the investigated signs, and Westerners exhibit better overall comprehension than Koreans. Five poorly comprehended signs for both Korean and Western groups were identified. Conclusion: The recently introduced water-sport prohibitive warning signs by MKE still need a lot of improvements in order to be implemented nationally or internationally. There were significant differences in the signs' comprehensibility between Koreans and westerners. Application: The findings may serve as a useful input for researchers and watersport sign designers in creating easy-to-comprehend safety signs.