Reifying ergonomic compatibility in redesign to enhance cross-cultural comprehension of prohibition safety signs

Abstract Globalization has increased the flow of cross-cultural populations to various countries. However, most safety signs in each country were designed based on local culture and familiarity, often neglecting the needs of foreign populations. Thus, it is necessary to examine and redesign the signs for appropriate comprehension to ensure the safety of cross-cultural populations. This study aimed to evaluate and validate the original comprehension and the comprehension rate after redesigning based on applying the compatibility concept in ergonomic principles. Fifty-eight foreign participants completed comprehension and ergonomic principles tests on the 40 Chinese public prohibition signs. Familiarity, conceptual and physical compatibility of each sign were collected. Results indicated that 27 signs had poor comprehension rates (low than 67%). Half (20 signs) of the 40 signs have been selected to redesign based on the overall Z-scores of compatibility test results. After redesigning these 20 signs using the compatibility principle, the additional 28 foreign participants and 57 local participants were recruited to evaluate the new signs. Results showed that all redesigned signs achieved a significant improvement in foreign comprehension rates (average increase of 44.7%), with 20 signs exceeding the 67% comprehension rate standard. The local comprehension rate was also examined to confirm inclusiveness, showing comparable comprehension for 17 signs and better comprehension for 3 signs among locals. This study underscores the importance of the compatibility principle in cross-cultural sign redesign to enhance access to safety-critical information across cultures.