Culture issues in traffic sign usability

Traffic signs are probably the best known graphical symbols that we encounter along roads and highways daily in a traffic system. The authors had conducted two experiments with two different groups of Hong Kong Chinese subjects to investigate the usability of traffic signs with guessing and comprehension tasks. The first experiment used Mainland China traffic signs, while the second experiment employed Hong Kong traffic signs. In this paper, the effects of two user factors (Mainland China visit experience and non-local driving experience) and one sign feature (concreteness) on task performance were investigated for exploring the culture issues in traffic sign usability. It was shown that Mainland China visit experience of subjects was a significant factor in affecting their sign guessing performance. The result also indicated that when a specific cultural issue is incorporated in a traffic sign, the sign should be accompanied by supplementary text to reduce the effect of cultural bias. It was interesting to note that non-local driving experience had a negative effect on local sign comprehension when signs were pictorially similar but different in intended messages; but the effect was positive when the signs look alike and conveyed the same meaning. A recommendation to ensure sign comprehensibility for non-local drivers is that a leaflet containing sign information should be made available for vehicle drivers at passport control points. On sign feature, concrete signs that bear a resemblance to actual objects contribute to higher guessability scores than abstract ones, which may be due to the fact that the thinking style of Chinese people is synthetic, concrete, and relies on the periphery of the visible world. Therefore, concrete signs are better than abstract signs in regard of providing visualization aids in helping Chinese subjects to complete the guessing task. The findings revealed the importance of taking the cultural issue into consideration when developing traffic signs, and provided information and recommendations for the design of highly comprehensible traffic signs.