Effects of competing environmental variables and signage on route-choices in simulated everyday and emergency wayfinding situations

Abstract

This study examined the relative influence of environmental variables (corridor width and brightness) and signage (directional and exit signs), when presented in competition, on participants' route-choices in two situational variables (everyday vs. emergency), during indoor wayfinding in virtual environments. A virtual reality-based methodology was used. Thus, participants attempted to find a room (everyday situation) in a virtual hotel, followed by a fire-related emergency egress (emergency situation). Different behaviours were observed. In the everyday situation, for no-signs condition, participants choose mostly the wider and brighter corridors, suggesting a heavy reliance on the environmental affordances. Conversely, for signs condition, participants mostly complied with signage, suggesting a greater reliance on the signs rather than on the environmental cues. During emergency, without signage, reliance on environmental affordances seems to be affected by the intersection type. In the sign condition, the reliance on environmental affordances that started strong decreases along the egress route.

Wayfinding in Healthcare Facilities: Contributions from Environmental Psychology

“…These distinctions are also reminiscent of the idea introduced by Carpman et al [13] that we have the environmental affordance (what the structure suggests can occur) and the manifest cues (e.g., signage) that are used to elucidate the floor plan configuration. Some research [29] has placed environmental affordances ( i.e. , corridor width, brightness) in direction competition with manifest cues ( i.e.…”

On the Boate Kiss Fire and the Brazilian Safety Legislation - What we can learn

“…It is expected that this knowledge must be more fully discussed, before another similar tragedy happen 27 27 The last great fire tragedy in a nightclub with a lot of similarities to Boate Kiss happened in Romania, still not addressed. To illustrate, the following points can be raised: what would be the real contribution of the air conditioning system in the scattering of the smoke; environmental variables and others can significantly influence the route-choices [47][48][49], then what are the influence of each one the collective and environmental factors that caused people to move toward the bathroom instead of the exit; how realistic can one deal with accessibility and disability's issues for an evacuations in non-adaptive behaviour situation associated to a high population densities in a nightclub?…”

A tool for signage placement recommendation in hospitals based on wayfinding metrics

“…Without intervention from the environment, it has been suggested that travellers will turn to the right at a T-Junction, however it has been argued that driving habits may influence a traveller's decision to turn left or right at a T-Junction. 38,39 Other common natural paths include the path with the least angular deviation (i.e. keeping on a straight path), 2,30,37,40 or the path of least complexity (i.e.…”

“…35,37,[41][42][43] Other natural path choices may include the widest option (i.e. following a wider corridor round rather than keeping to the straightest path), 38 or the most visibly accessible option. 5,7,44 Other metrics which are used to measure a spatial layout's ability to aid natural wayfinding and natural path-taking, include those measuring spatial connectivity and centrality, 40,42,[44][45][46] however, these measure the space or network graph as a whole.…”