Determining the Effectiveness of Construction Safety Signs: An Eye-Tracking Study
Publication: Construction Research Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Warning signs are a critical defense against construction accidents; however, there’s a lack of study on the effectiveness of construction signs. Therefore, this research examines the effectiveness of signs on construction sites by considering variables such as noticeability and comprehension. Noticeability relates to the signs’ ability to attract attention, whereas comprehension refers to understanding them. In this study, comprehension is related to eye movement metric total fixation duration, while noticeability is related to visit count within an area of interest (AOI). The experiments utilized a stationary eye-tracking device to track nine participants’ (Purdue University graduate students) attention and record reaction time. The results were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test and found that the presence of text (p-value = 0.0) impacts comprehension speed and the use of pictograms in the signs (p-value = 0.049) impacts the noticeability. This research helps to identify and potentially improve less effective warning signs, contributing to decreased construction-related incidents.
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Construction Research Congress 2024
Pages: 854 - 864
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Published online: Mar 18, 2024
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