Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

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Safety Science
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Assessing the compliance with the direction indicated by emergency

evacuation signage
Jun Kubota a, Tomonori Sano a, Enrico Ronchi b, *
a
Department of Human Science, Waseda University, Mikajima 2-579-15, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-1192, Japan
b
Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, Lund SE-221 00, Sweden

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The type and relative position of evacuation signage to evacuees’ location can affect their likelihood to under­
Evacuation stand and comply with the information provided. To address this issue, a Virtual reality (VR) experiment with 60
Signage participants was carried out to investigate the effect of signage vs viewer placement on the compliance with the
Virtual reality
indicated direction in case of evacuation. The VR experiments were conducted with a head mounted display.
Way-finding
Emergency
Different independent variables linked to the signage placement/type were investigated in a VR underground
Underground station square scenario, namely (1) the installation position (i.e., distance, angle of interaction), and (2) the arrow type
in use on the signage. Participants selected evacuation routes in VR and a questionnaire investigating their
degree of confidence regarding their choice was performed. Results show that the angle of interaction affects the
evacuees’ chosen direction. Participants showed a higher degree of confidence when the arrow pointed towards
the centre of the route. In addition, after a distance of 2.0 m from the centre, the correct answer rate of the
evacuation signage for the cases of arrows pointing left, right and up become comparable. The use of an up arrow
performed as well as the use of left and right arrows, while an arrow pointing down was not as clearly under­
stood. The concept of visible area ratio is suggested to evaluate the compliance with the direction indicated by
evacuation signage. The result is supported by the relationship between the lateral position of the signage and the
calculated angle of interaction.

1. Introduction 2020), awareness of their presence (Shiwakoti et al., 2019), colour

Emergency evacuation signage is installed in different types of fa­
cilities to aid way-finding during at-risk scenarios and ensure people can
reach a safe place in a timely manner. The design of the emergency signs
themselves has been object of several decades of research, regulatory
and standardization efforts (International Standards Organization,
2012, 2019), resulting in key features which they need to comply with in
order to be used in buildings. For example, Japanese regulations pre­
scribe installation intervals, type, size and brightness of the lights in
emergency evacuation signage (Government of Japan, 2020). In
contrast, the exact placement of the signage would generally be based on
guesswork by the installation company in accordance with the fire code,
pending approval by the inspection authority (e.g. the fire service), who
follow their own experience to evaluate the placement of signage. This
often results in an ambiguous installation procedure.
Existing research on evacuation signage mostly focused on variables
such as legibility distances (Xie et al., 2007), visual access (Zhu et al.,
(Kinateder et al., 2019) and type of information displayed (language,
pictograms, text, etc.) (Hassan, 2015; Ronchi et al., 2016; Tan & Said,
2015). In addition, novel types of evacuation signage have also been
investigated, including dynamic signage. i.e. signage indicating the
optimal route to be taken during an emergency (Arias et al., 2019; Cisek
& Kapalka, 2014; Galea et al., 2016), or dissuasive signage discouraging
evacuees to go towards a threatened area (Olander et al., 2017). It
should also be noted that people may tend to use familiar routes (Kin­
ateder et al., 2018; Sime, 1985) during an evacuation, thus they may
tend to use daily routes rather than emergency routes. Emergency
evacuation signage plays therefore a key role in the successful imple­
mentation of an evacuation strategy, as the understanding and compli­
ance with the information provided can affect the safety of a building
(Fujii et al., 2020).
While emphasis has been put on several aspects related to the design
of evacuation signage, to date, there has not been a systematic assess­
ment of the impact of their placement in relation to the viewer’s

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: enrico.ronchi@brand.lth.se (E. Ronchi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105210
Received 21 October 2020; Received in revised form 28 January 2021; Accepted 9 February 2021
Available online 27 February 2021
0925-7535/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

location. In other words, it is unclear how the angle of view affects
compliance with the evacuation signage in relation to the type in use.
This issue is particularly important in complex infrastructures, such as
shopping malls, metro stations, airports, etc. in which environmental
clutter is present and way-finding may not be trivial. In particular, un­
derground squares (e.g. underground malls or stations) in metropolitan
areas present additional challenges from an evacuation safety perspec­
tives (Fridolf et al., 2019). In fact, underground squares may lead to
several different ways and may not necessarily have a simple structure
(i.e. a typical 4-flow intersection). In addition, evacuation in under­
ground spaces may take place upwards (Ronchi et al., 2015b), thus
making it critical for occupants to adopt an appropriate route. Other key
factors which could negatively affect evacuation safety in underground
squares include (Ohno et al., 2008): (1) they can often accommodate
large crowds, (2) they are generally transient spaces (therefore evacuees
may not be fully familiar with the environment), (3) conditions may
become rapidly untenable due to the lack of compartmentation, thus
people may need to walk through smoke and (4) they may be difficult to
access for firefighting and rescue operations.
Given the issues described, the main aim of this work is to investigate
a set of key variables related to the placement and type of evacuation
signage in complex spaces. The research hypothesis is that the angle of
view of the signage (depending on the type of sign in use and the posi­
tion of the sign) affects the compliance with the indicated direction. In
addition, the compliance with the direction pointed by the arrow pre­
sent in the sign (pointing right, left, up, down) was also investigated. The
experiments were primarily focused on investigating a Japanese popu­
lation, although the results are evaluated to identify issues which could
be generalizable to all populations. The hypotheses were investigated
performing a set of Virtual Reality (VR) experiments in which partici­
pants were performing a way-finding task in an underground square and
they were interacting with different configurations of signage systems.
2. Method
Given the need to systematically manipulate the type/placement of
the signage in use (along with the relative initial location of the
viewers), it was decided to investigate this issue with the use of Virtual
Reality (VR). VR is a relatively novel methodological approach in
evacuation research, which allows high experimental control at a rela­
Prior conducting the experiments, an ethical assessment was performed.
This was based on the guidelines available at the university in which the
experiments took place, which require to follow a flowchart to assess if a
full ethical review is required. The VR evacuation experiments did not
present significant risks to health and safety compared to commercial
videogames, so no full ethical review had to be submitted at a national
level. An internal ethical evaluation was therefore conducted on the
experiments and safety risk and measures were communicated to the
participants prior participating in the experiments. In fact, a number of
precautions were taken to minimize the risk of physical injuries. These
included the presence of a researcher during the whole duration of the
experiments and it was decided to conduct the experiments while seated
to reduce cases of nausea/dizziness.
3.1. The independent variables investigated
Four main independent variables were investigated in the experi­
ments and they were manipulated between the subjects:
(1) The distance to the evacuation signage (see Table 1)
This independent variable was studied to investigate to which extent
the distance to the signage may impact the chosen route (see y in Fig. 1).
(2) The angle of interaction between the evacuation signage and the
viewer position (see Table 1)
This independent variable allows the study of the compliance with
the indicated direction in relation to the relative angle between the
viewer and the evacuation signage (see α in Fig. 1) and the location of
the signage on the x axis compared to the viewer position (see x in
Fig. 1). In other words, the interaction angle, as operationalized in the
current experiment, describes the orientation of the sign on the vertical
axis relative to the mounting wall.
Table 1
Description of the scenarios under consideration.
Scenario Experimental Dependent Independent Conditions
number layout(s) variables variables

tively lower cost compared to traditional laboratory experiments (Kin­ 1 Complex Indicated Distance to y = 10 m, 15 m,
ateder et al., 2014b). VR has been used for the investigation of way- space direction signage y 20 m
(Correct/
finding and evacuation systems for several other application (Arias
Incorrect) Angle of α = 0◦ , 30◦ , 60◦ ,
et al., 2019; Cosma et al., 2016; Duarte et al., 2010; Ronchi et al., 2019; signage 70◦ , 80◦
Ronchi et al., 2015a; Tang et al., 2009). The successful use of VR studies Confidence rotation α
is linked to the concept of presence, i.e., people feeling present in the in indicated
simulated virtual environment (Diemer et al., 2015; McMahan, 2003). direction
(4◦ )
VR is currently undergoing systematic validation scrutiny for evacuation
2 Square space Chosen Location of x = ±0.5 m, ±1
applications (Arias et al., 2018). Route the signage x m, ±1.5 m, ±2
A wide range of VR technologies are available today, with varying (Correct/ m, ±2.5 m, ±3
levels of immersion. They range from Cave Automatic Virtual Environ­ Incorrect) Distance to the m, ±3.5 m, ±4
Confidence signage y m, ±4.5 m, ±5 m
ments to Head Mounted Displays (HMD) (Ronchi et al., 2019). The
in chosen Orientation of
current experiments were performed with the use of a Head Mounted route (4◦ ) the arrow y = 10 m
Display technology. This technology was used as it is inexpensive and it Left, right, up,
facilitates recruitment (given the possibility to conduct experiments on down
different sites). The VR environment was created using a 3D modelling 3 Square space Chosen Distance to the y=5m
Route signage y
tool (Sketchup Pro 2019) later implemented in the Unity game engine
(Correct/ α=
(the version 3.14f1 was used). The experiments were conducted with an Incorrect) Angle of 0◦ ,30◦ ,60◦ ,70◦
HTC-Vive Pro head Mounted Display powered by a gaming laptop (main signage β = 30◦ ,60◦ ,70◦
specifications: processor Intel(R) Core i7-8750H CPU 2.20 GHz RAM: Confidence rotation α Left, right
in chosen Space 7 positions
16.0 GB, graphic card NVIDIA GeForce(R) GTX1070).
route (4◦ ) configuration
β
3. The VR experiments on the interaction with evacuation Orientation of
signage the arrow
Position of the
signage
The VR experiments were conducted at Waseda University (Japan).

2
J. Kubota et al.
Fig. 1. Distance to the signage and angle of interaction with the signage. The circle indicates the position of the viewer and the rectangle indicates the signage. The
left figure indicates the distance y to the signage and the default configuration with α = 0 and x = 0; the centre figure indicates an angle of interaction α ∕
figure indicates a location of the signage x ∕ = 0 and α = 0.
A schematic representation of the distance to the signage (y in Fig. 1),
the angle of interaction (α in Fig. 1) and the location of the signage (x in
Fig. 1) is presented in Fig. 1. The circle indicates the location of the
viewer, while the rectangle is the evacuation signage.
(3) The orientation of the arrow (see Table 1) present in the sign (as
shown in Fig. 2)
This independent variable allows investigating if the compliance
with the indicated direction and degree of confidence in the chosen
route is affected by the type of arrow adopted in the signage.
(4) The space configuration in relation to the evacuation signage (see
Table 1)
This independent variable investigates the impact of the relative
angle between the indicated direction and the indicated route (see β in
Fig. 3) and the overall position of the signage in space (i.e. varying the y
position of the green rectangle in Fig. 3).
The degree of confidence of participants in choosing a given route
based on the information provided by the signage was also investigated
as dependent variable through a 4-point scale. This was performed to
assess both the participants’ understanding of the information provided
by the signage as well as the relationship between the indicated direc­
tion of the evacuation signage and the confidence in selecting a given
route.
3.2. The underground square environment
The virtual environment consisted of a portion of an underground
space (i.e. an underground square connected to different ways) equip­
ped with evacuation signage on the ceiling. The virtual environment was
deliberately kept relatively simple (i.e., no environmental clutter was
present) to avoid confounding factors and isolate the independent var­
iables of interest. The evacuation signage and experimental layouts in
use are here described.
3.2.1. Emergency evacuation signage
The virtual environment included emergency evacuation signage on
Fig. 2. Type of arrows in the evacuation signage in use in the experiments. The orientation of the arrow in the sign was pointing left, right, up, down.
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Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210
= 0. The right
the ceiling in accordance with the Class B size defined in the Japanese
regulations (Government of Japan, 2020) (0.4 m × 0.4 m × 0.1 m) as
these are commonly used in Japan. The evacuation signage was placed
in the ceiling of the underground space (see Fig. 4). The height of the
sign was fixed and corresponded to 3 m (i.e., right below the ceiling) and
the viewer height changed in relation to the actual participant height.
This was deliberately done to represent the variation in height that
people would have in a real scenario. The signage position in the un­
derground square, the angle of interaction with the viewer, and the di­
rection the arrow was pointing to were manipulated in the scenarios.
3.2.2. Experimental layouts
Test participants were experiencing two underground space layouts
in VR (a square layout and a more complex layout). Schematic repre­
sentations of the underground square layouts are presented in Fig. 5. The
ceiling height was equal to 3 m in all layouts. The two experimental
layouts were selected to allow studying varying position of the sign in
space (the approximate area size of the square layout is 350 m2 while the
area size of the complex layout is 450 m2).
3.3. The experimental scenarios
A set of scenarios were designed in relation to the independent
variables under consideration related to the interaction between people
and evacuation signage. Specifically, a total of three experimental sce­
narios were designed. Table 1 presents a summary of the geometric
layout in use and the dependent/independent variables and conditions
under investigation. The conditions presented in Table 1 were selected
to be representative of conditions which could be observed in real un­
derground square designs in Japan (with the exception of the down and
up arrow on the signage which are currently not used in Japan).
In Scenario 1, the distance to the signage (y in Fig. 1) and the angle of
interaction (α in Fig. 1) were investigated under different conditions: x
= 10 m, 15 m, 20 m and α = 0◦ , 30◦ , 60◦ , 70◦ , 80◦ in the complex space
layout. The dependent variables included the indicated direction (left or
right) and the degree of confidence in their choice. The corresponding
number of sub-scenarios was equal to 30 sub-scenarios (considering left
and right direction).
In scenario 2, the dependent variables included the direction
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

Fig. 3. Space configuration of the underground square with 4 possible routes. The angle β indicates the orientation of the two north ways connected to the un­
derground square in relation to the line parallel to the other southern routes that are perpendicular to the opening to access the space. The rectangle in the centre is
the signage and the circle indicates the position of the viewer.

Fig. 4. Example of emergency evacuation signage hanging from the ceiling in the virtual environment.

Fig. 5. Schematic representations of the underground square layouts used in the VR experiments, namely square (left) and complex (right). The approximate scale is
reported in the bottom left corner of each figure.

indicated by the signage (left, right, up or down or participants could conditions included a fixed distance to the signage (y = 10 m), locations
answer that they did not know the direction indicated by the arrow), and of the signage (x = ±0.5 m, ±1 m, ±1.5 m, ±2 m, ±2.5 m, ±3 m, ±3.5 m,
the degree of confidence in choosing a given route. The experimental ±4 m, ±4.5 m, ±5 m for a total of 20 locations) and orientation of the

4
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

arrow on the evacuation signage (left, right, up, down). In order to

decrease the number of sub-scenarios, the arrow orientations were
randomly assigned in two options. The corresponding number of sub-
scenarios was equal to 60 sub-scenarios.
In scenario 3, participants were required to identify the route indi­
cated by the evacuation signage (northern or southern routes). The
scenario presented the choice between four different paths. The exper­
imental conditions included a distance to the signage kept fixed at 5 m,
four angles of interactions (as in Fig. 1 with α = 0◦ , 30◦ , 60◦ , 70◦ ) and
seven positions of the signage in the space (i.e., the placing of the
signage in the y dimension was modified, but the distance of the viewer
was kept constant), two arrow orientation (left or right) and three space
configurations (as in Fig. 3 with routes β inclined at 30◦ , 60◦ , and 70◦ ).
The corresponding number of sub-scenarios was equal to 84 sub-
scenarios.

3.4. Participants
A total of 60 participants took part in the experiments (excluding 2
participants who reported simulation sickness and dropped the experi­
ment; those data are excluded), of which 43 male and 17 female. Most
participants were young students, with an age range from 18 to 38 years
old (average = 21.16 and standard deviation = 3.18 years). The par­
ticipants were mostly of Japanese nationality (95%), with the remaining
(5%) being of Chinese nationality. The population nationalities are
deemed to be representative of the population present in Japan.
Participants were recruited by posting on the bulletin board at
Waseda University. A convenience sampling approach was adopted
given the timeframe available for running the experiments, aiming to
obtain at least 20 people per scenario. Information was sent to interested
people by email. Participants were given the opportunity to select a time
from a schedule to perform the experiment and after that they were
provided with a confirmation on the time/place of the experiment.
3.5. Experimental procedure
The experiments took place at Waseda University in Tokorozawa and
Shinjuku (Japan) in June/July 2019. Each participant took part in the
experiment one at a time. This choice was made to isolate individual
behaviour rather than investigating social influence (Kinateder et al.,
2014a). Upon arrival, participants were welcomed by a researcher and
provided with general written information about the experiment, which
included both safety measures and informed consent. The informed
consent included information concerning safety and privacy, including
confidential treatment of personal data. In addition to written infor­
mation, participants were also given oral information prior conducting
the experiments.
After getting the informed consent signed, participants were then
guided to the location where the Head Mounted Display was placed.
Participants were requested to perform the experiments while seating
(this was performed to reduce the risks of dizziness). The view height
was adjusted to match the height at which participants would look at the
signage if standing, so that the vertical distance between the viewer and
the signage was kept equal to 1.5 m. During the experiments, one
researcher was in the proximity to help the participant in wearing the
HMD equipment, run the experiment (see Fig. 6) and ensure the
participant did not feel dizziness or nausea during the experiment.
Participants were requested to wear the HMD. Participants then
received a brief introduction about the equipment, i.e. how to interact
with the VR world (using a mouse and looking around with the HMD)
and how to change the scenarios. Before starting the actual experiment,
participants practiced VR in a training scenario to make sure they un­
derstood how to interact with the environment. After participants
declared to have understood the mechanisms for interaction with the
virtual space, the actual experiment started. The participants were
randomly assigned to one of the three scenarios (either scenario 1, 2 or
Fig. 6. Example of experimental setting with the Head Mounted Display at
Waseda University.
3), thus 20 participants were taking part in each scenario.
Participants were located in front of the entrance of the underground
square. They were then shown one emergency sign on the ceiling. They
were required to answer the direction that they would choose (in sce­
narios 1 and 3) or to answer the route that evacuation signage indicates
(in scenario 2). Participants were doing this verbally by saying out loud
the chosen direction in VR to the researcher. After they completed this
first part, they were asked to select the degree of confidence in their
choice regarding the previous scenario using a 4-point scale: 1 = Very
confident / 2 = Confident / 3 = Unsure / 4 = Not confident at all (the
questions were performed in Japanese, this is an English translation). In
other words, the question on the degree of confidence refers to the
judgement of the route they just chose/indicated direction. After their
declared degree of confidence, the scenario changed automatically to a
new one. The same procedure was repeated for every sub-scenario. Each
participant experienced the conditions of one scenario and the partici­
pants were given the opportunity to take breaks between sub-scenarios.
Given the duration of the experiments (on average approximately 25
min, including breaks), participants were experiencing the experimental
conditions in a randomized order to avoid a systematic bias in results
and reduce the effects of questionnaire fatigue. After completion of the
VR experiments, the participants were helped by the researcher to
remove the HMD and the experiment was considered completed.
4. Results
Scenario 1 investigated the chosen direction of participants in rela­
tion to the distance to the signage y and the angle of interaction with the
signage α (along with the degree of confidence in the chosen route). The
results of the experiments are presented in Table 2 and in Figs. 7 and 8,
which show the correct answer rate and distributions of the degree of
confidence in choosing a given route in relation to the independent
variables under investigation. This analysis is performed assuming that
the 4-point scale can be treated as an interval scale. As expected, con­
fidence decreases as the angle of interaction increases (i.e. the sign is
seen more from the “side” rather than from the “front”) and the distance
increases. In particular, when the installation angle is 80◦ , the degree of
Table 2
Correct answer rate in relation to the angle of interaction.
Interaction angle (α) 0 30 60 70 80
– – – – – –
Correct answer rate 100% 100% 100% 99% 90%
Distance to signage y (m) 10 15 20
– – – –
Correct answer rate 99% 98% 96%

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J. Kubota et al.
Fig. 7. Results of scenario 1 concerning the degree of confidence in the chosen
route in relation to the distance to the signage y.
Fig. 8. Results of scenario 1 concerning the degree of confidence in the chosen
route in relation to the angle of interaction α.
confidence is significantly lower than other angles of interactions.
Statistical testing (ANOVA) was also performed to compare the re­
sults of scenario 1. This was performed after normality of the distribu­
tion was checked using a Shapiro-Wilk test (p < 0.0001). Statistical
difference was found for both conditions (in both conditions p <
0.0001). Post-hoc testing (Tukey-Kramer HSD) was performed to assess
the differences between the paired conditions. Considering the paired
comparisons, the increasing distance to the signage significantly affects
the confidence in response (p < 0.0001 for 10 m vs 20 m, p = 0.0256 for
15 m vs 20 m and p = 0.0341 for 10 m vs 15 m). No statistically sig­
nificant differences were found between the 0◦ and 30◦ conditions (p =
0.9369), while results statistically differed in all other paired conditions
(p < 0.0001 for 0◦ vs 80◦ , 30◦ vs 80◦ , 60◦ vs 80◦ , 70◦ vs 80◦ , 0◦ vs 70◦ ,
30◦ vs 70◦ ; p = 0.0002 for 0◦ vs 60◦ ; p = 0.0045 for 30◦ vs 60◦ ; and p =
0.0122 for 60◦ vs 70◦ ).
The relationship between the correctness of the answers and the
confidence in the answer has also been investigated. Results for scenario
1 are reported as diamond plots in Fig. 9. In diamond plots the hori­
zontal line inside each diamond is the mean value, the diamond repre­
sents the confidence interval for each group. This shows that the
confidence positively correlates with the correctness of the chosen
direction.
The results of scenario 2 were also statistically tested (performing
ANOVA testing) and results were statistically significant (p < 0.0001).
The investigation of confidence as a dependent variable contributes to a
more detailed evaluation of the correct answer rate. Specifically,
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Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210
Fig. 9. Diamond plots indicating the relationship between the ratio of correct/
incorrect answers and confidence in the chosen direction.
confidence values 2, 3 and 4 correspond to a correct answer rate over
90%. Figs. 10 and 11 show the change of correct answer rate and con­
fidence in replies in scenario 2 due to difference in the signage location
(x in Fig. 1). The blue line represents the case of the arrow pointing left
and right, the orange line represents the arrow pointing up and the grey
line is the case of the arrow pointing down. After a distance of 2.0 m from
the centre, the correct answer rate of the evacuation signage for the
cases of arrows pointing left, right (these are aggregated in Figs. 10 and
11) and up become comparable. Therefore, the evacuation signage
including arrows pointing left and right performed as well as the evac­
uation signage including the arrow pointing up in terms of correct
answer rate. In contrast, the evacuation signage including the arrow
pointing down does not perform as well in terms of correct answer rate.
The correct answer rate is the lowest when the distance from the centre
is at 0.5 and 1.0 m. The confidence in the chosen route are reported in
Fig. 11. This figure show that the evacuation signage including the
arrow pointing left and right performed slightly better than the evacua­
tion signage including the arrow pointing up, followed by the arrow
pointing down in terms of the degree of confidence. Overall the degree of
confidence between the different arrows seems more comparable than
the correct answer rate.
After participants completed all the sub-scenarios in scenario 2, they
were asked what the arrow pointing up and pointing down mean. Table 3
shows the statistical testing concerning the participants’ answers on the
meaning of arrows pointing up or down in the evacuation signage. The
interpretation of the arrows pointing up is “Go straight” (90% of
Fig. 10. Results of scenario 2 investigating the correct answer rate in relation
to the design of the arrow (Left/Right, Up and Down) in the signage and the
position of interaction (i.e. the location of the signage from the centre). The
data-points are connected with solid lines when data from two consecutive
conditions were studied or dashed lines when data from two consecutive con­
ditions were missing. The dots indicate the datapoints.
J. Kubota et al.
Fig. 11. Results of scenario 2 investigating the confidence in the chosen route
in relation to the design of the arrow (Left/Right, Up and Down) in the signage
and the position of interaction (i.e. the location of the signage from the centre).
The data-points are connected with solid lines when data from two consecutive
conditions were studied or dashed lines when data from two consecutive con­
ditions were missing. The dots indicate the datapoints.
Table 3
Statistical testing concerning participants’ answers on the meaning of arrows
pointing up or down in evacuation signage.
Test χ2 Probability > χ2
Likelihood ratio 15.535 0.0004
Pearson 12.000 0.0025
participants) and “Other” (10% of participants). “Other” means that the
decision depends on the relationship between the location of the evac­
uation signage and the route. The interpretation of the arrow pointing
down is “Go straight” (45% of participants), “Go back to” (45% of par­
ticipants) and “Other” (10% of participants).
Also in this case, it is possible to see in Fig. 12 that higher confidence
corresponds to a higher chance of choosing the correct direction indi­
cated by the signage. It should be noted that this figure presents
aggregate data concerning all scenarios. Fig. 11 shows that the confi­
dence is the highest for the arrows pointing left/right, followed by the
arrow pointing up and the the arrow pointing down.
In scenario 3, participants were required to select a route after
looking at the evacuation signage and state the degree of confidence in
their choice. Figs. 13–24 shows the schematic drawings of the scenarios
along with the route selection rate and degree of confidence in relation
to distance y to the sign (each number in Figs. 13–24 indicates a different
distance y) and the configuration of the space (i.e. the position of the
signage and the angles of the exit route, see the green arrow positions
Fig. 12. Diamond plots indicating the relationship between the ratio of cor­
rect/incorrect answers and confidence in the chosen direction.
7
Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210
and β in Fig. 3).
The numbers on the schematic top view drawings and the numbers
on the bar graph indicate the same location. Evacuation signage indi­
cated different routes in accordance with the direction of the arrow on
the sign (left or right). Participants showed a higher degree of confi­
dence in the chosen route when the arrow pointed towards the centre of
the route. This confidence decreases when the arrow was indicating in
the middle of two routes. In those cases, participants showed more un­
certainty in identifying the route to select.
4.1. Exploratory analysis of results
An attempt to describe the relationship between the angle of inter­
action α of the signage and the area displayed to a viewer is here per­
formed. This is in line with previous work performed to study signage
systems (Fujii et al., 2020). This is performed by calculating the size of
the front area that is visible to the viewer (this is for a signage of di­
mensions equal to 0.4 × 0.4 m, as in the experiments performed) and the
area ratio compared to the case of 0◦ angle (this is equal to the visible
front area divided by the area corresponding to viewing the signage from
the front). The calculated values for a set of angle of interactions are
reported in Table 4. The projected area that can be seen by a participant
(assuming an access to the space perpendicular to the square) becomes
smaller when moving from the case of the 0◦ angle (participant in front
of the signage) to the 90◦ angle (when participant is not facing the
signage). The reduction in displayed area makes it more difficult for the
viewer to identify and comply to the direction indicated by the arrow in
the signage. In the present study, when the angle of interaction corre­
sponds to 80◦ , it was particularly difficult for the viewer to identify the
direction of the arrow, as the area ratio was equal to 17%. This was
associated with a declared lower confidence in the chosen route.
The results of scenario 2 showed that the correct answer rate of ar­
rows pointing down is lower than the arrows pointing left, right and up.
However, the confidence level associated with the arrows pointing down
is more comparable to the confidence level associated with the arrows
pointing left, right and up. The percentage of correct responses for the
left/right and up/down directions pointed by the arrow on the signage
was lower than 20% at lateral positions × equal to 0.5 m and 1.0 m from
the centre. This result seems to be in line with scenario 1, as participants
could not understand the indicated direction when the angle of inter­
action was higher than 80◦ . The percentage of correct answers becomes
higher for the up arrow in the evacuation signage at a distance of 1.5 m
and 2.0 m from the centre. This corresponds to an angle of view between
70◦ and 80◦ . It is also speculated that the percentage of correct responses
for the up and down arrows on the evacuation signage was affected by
both the angle of view as well as the understanding of the indicated
direction, while the percentage of correct responses for the left and right
arrows on the evacuation signage was mostly affected by the angle of
interaction. It should also be noted that the Japanese population may be
familiar with the arrows pointing left, right and up while the use of the
down arrow is not common in Japanese environments. This lack of fa­
miliarity is deemed to have affected the results.
The reason for the similarity between the up arrow and the left and
right arrow emergency signage at a distance of 2.0 m from the centre is
that 90% of the participants recognized the arrow pointing up as an
evacuation signage indicating to “Go straight”. Table 5 shows the rela­
tionship between the lateral position of the signage x, the calculated
angle of interaction α. This is calculated as the inverse tangent of the
ratio between the distance between the viewer and the hypothenuse and
the centre of the signage then multiplied by 180 and divided by π. The
projected area of the emergency evacuation signage from the line of
sight was calculated by the cosine of the angle.
The first two scenarios investigated similar independent variables, e.
g., the angle of interaction between the viewer and the signage.
Nevertheless, in scenario 1, this was performed considering participants
being in front of the evacuation signage and varying its angle. In
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

Fig. 13. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration angle β = 30◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 14. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which the

angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration
angle β = 30◦ and the arrow on the sign pointed to­
wards the left direction (left) or right direction (right).
The numbers on the left-hand side (1–7) indicate the
position of the signage as shown in Fig. 13. The
southern routes are indicated in red while the north­
ern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of
the references to colour in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 15. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 30◦ , the space configuration angle β = 30◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 16. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which

the angle of interaction α = 30◦ , the space config­
uration angle β = 30◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right di­
rection (right). The numbers on the left-hand side
(1–7) indicate the position of the signage as shown
in Fig. 15. The southern routes are indicated in red
while the northern routes are indicated in blue. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

8
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

Fig. 17. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration angle β = 60◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 18. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which the

angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration
angle β = 60◦ and the arrow on the sign pointed to­
wards the left direction (left) or right direction
(right). The numbers on the left-hand side (1–7)
indicate the position of the signage as shown in
Fig. 17. The southern routes are indicated in red while
the northern routes are indicated in blue. (For inter­
pretation of the references to colour in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)

Fig. 19. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 60◦ , the space configuration angle β = 60◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

scenario 2, the position of the signage itself was modified.
Scenario 3 showed that adjusting the angle of the emergency signage
to match the direction of the way to be taken was effective in guiding
people towards a given pathway. As expected, a high percentage of
correct routes were selected when the path to be chosen matched the
direction indicated by the signage. In contrast, participants had more
issues in identifying the route to select when the arrow was placed in the
middle of two routes. Due to the increasing complexity of underground
spaces, particularly in squares, evacuees may be increasingly exposed to
situations where the emergency evacuation signage might not be
directly in front of them. This implies that the relative position between
the viewer and the signage might not be necessarily at 0◦ or 90◦ . This
study is deemed to provide guidance on which angles of interactions
may lead to more uncertainty on the route to be selected. In particular,
the concept of area ratio could be particularly useful to design the
installation of emergency evacuation signage.
5. Discussion
The VR experiments performed are an important step towards a
better understanding of the impact of emergency evacuation signage
location, type and angle of view on the selected routes. This is particu­
larly important in emergency scenarios where a sub-optimal usage of
evacuation routes may increase evacuation times and potentially nega­
tively affect safety. Results from scenario 1 clearly show that the degree
of confidence in selecting a route is affected by the distance to the
signage and the angle of interaction with the signage. In particular, the
angle of interaction had a stronger impact on the confidence that

9
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

Fig. 20. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 60◦ , the space configuration angle β = 60◦ and the arrow on the sign pointed on the left
direction. The numbers on the left-hand side (1–7) indicate the position of the signage as shown in Fig. 19.. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 21. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration angle β = 70◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 22. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 0◦ , the space configuration angle β = 70◦ and the arrow on the sign pointed on the left
direction. The numbers on the left-hand side (1–7) indicate the position of the signage as shown in Fig. 21. The southern routes are indicated in red while the northern
routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

participants had in selecting a route when compared to the distance to
the signage.
It should be noticed that participants in the experiments were staying
fixed in a given position. Therefore, this study should be seen as a first
step towards a better understanding of the interaction between signage
and viewer positioning. Future studies should investigate this interac­
tion considering people in motion. In addition, participants were young
students without visual impairments, thus future studies should inves­
tigate the performance of older populations, possibly considering the
impact of functional limitations affecting vision. It is speculated that
people with functional limitations affecting vision may be even more
prone to difficulties interpreting the direction indicated by the emer­
gency evacuation signage. Therefore, this study raises an important
issue which may be even more relevant when considering a wider
variability in population.
Results confirm that viewing an emergency evacuation signage from
the side may create more uncertainty in the route to be selected, thus
potentially affecting the likelihood of success of an evacuation strategy.
In fact, uncertainty and even misjudgements on the routes to be taken
during an emergency could lead to longer evacuation times and

10
J. Kubota et al. Safety Science 138 (2021) 105210

Fig. 23. Schematic representation of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 70◦ , the space configuration angle β = 70◦ and the arrow on the sign
pointed towards the left direction (left) or right direction (right). The numbers indicate the position of the signage. The southern routes are indicated in red while the
northern routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 24. Graph bar of the sub-scenario 3 in which the angle of interaction α = 70◦ , the space configuration angle β = 70◦ and the arrow on the sign pointed on the left
direction. The numbers on the left-hand side (1–7) indicate the position of the signage as shown in Fig. 23. The southern routes are indicated in red while the northern
routes are indicated in blue. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

protection act (Government of Japan, 2020).

Table 4
This study also highlights the need to consider the impact of signage
Relationship between angle of interaction α, front area size and area ratio for
design and type of information displayed on emergency signage in
0◦ in scenario 1.
evacuation models. Those models are often used in performance-based
Angle α [◦ ] 0 30 60 70 80 design (e.g. in fire safety engineering). Only few models have started
Front area [m2 × 10− 1] 1.6 1.385 0.8 0.547 0.277 implementing a more detailed interaction between signage and evac­
Area ratio for 0◦ 1.00 0.86 0.50 0.34 0.17 uees (Ronchi et al., 2012; Xie et al., 2007). The most sophisticated
signage-people interaction sub-models generally implement several
unwanted delays in way-finding. While in this study the time to identify steps, among which (1) the visibility of the sign, (2) the likelihood of the
the chosen route was not investigated, future studies should address this sign to be noticed by an evacuee, (3) the likelihood of the sign to be
limitation by investigating the uncertainty in the choice and how it understood as such by an evacuee, (4) the likelihood of a sign of being
could delay evacuation. used by an evacuee. As demonstrated in this work, the compliance with
The use of the left, right and up arrows on the evacuation signage the direction indicated by an evacuation signage is likely to be signifi­
seem to effectively guide people in the desired direction. Nevertheless, cantly affected by independent variables like the angle of interaction
the arrow pointing down was often interpreted as going forward or going and type of sign. Therefore it is recommended that future work make use
back to, thus its use should be questioned in environments in which of the concepts like the area ratio in evacuation sub-models concerning
population is deemed not familiar with its indicated direction. Famil­ people-signage interaction to simulate a more realistic route choice.
iarity with the type of signage in use should be taken into account when
selecting the type of information to be included in emergency signage. 6. Conclusion
This example is particularly important for the Japanese population
under consideration as this type of signage may be introduced in Japan This study investigated the impact of the emergency evacuation
in the near future and it is currently not regulated in Japan by the fire signage position in relation to the viewer and the arrow type on the sign

Table 5
Relationship between the lateral position of the signage x, the calculated angle of interaction α, and area ratio for 0◦ in scenario 2.
Position x [m] 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0

Angle α [ ]
◦
87.1 84.3 81.5 78.7 76.0 73.3 70.7 68.2 65.8 63.4
Area ratio for 0◦ 0.001 0.004 0.011 0.018 0.029 0.042 0.056 0.071 0.088 0.106

11
J. Kubota et al.
on likelihood of compliance with the indicated direction. This was
performed through a Virtual Reality experiment. The angle of interac­
tion affects the evacuees’ chosen direction. The arrow pointing down
was not clearly understood, due to the fact that this is not commonly
used in Japan. A new concept of visible area ratio was proposed to
evaluate the compliance with the direction indicated by evacuation
signage.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
Jun Kubota and Tomonori Sano wish to acknowledge Taisei Foun­
dation for sponsoring this work.
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