Title: Design comparison of guide road signs considering multinational speakers in the State of Qatar

Authors: Asma Mahgoub; Pilsung Choe

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

Abstract: The design of guide road signs becomes challenging when multiple languages are written on them, and this is the case in Qatar. Text should be oriented in a convenient way to process the information in a short time while driving, and a suitable background colour should be selected to maximise the sign's visibility. Based on these two factors: text layout and background colour, four signs were compared using an online survey. Respondents preferred guide road signs having different background colours for information in multiple languages. They also preferred having the two languages displayed in a vertical layout. ANOVA results showed that layout and background colour is significant in their preference, and there was no interaction effect. The result also showed that there is no significant difference between Arabic and non-Arabic drivers.

Keywords: human factors; road safety; guide road signs; Qatar; information display; colour coding; road signs design; text layout.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFE.2020.109593

International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2020 Vol.7 No.2, pp.191 - 205

Received: 18 Nov 2019
Accepted: 23 Apr 2020
Published online: 15 Sep 2020 *

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