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Downloadable ANS Z535.3-compliant
Symbol Comprehension Testing Materials
The symbol comprehension testing materials
from the Safety Symbols Art book’s hereto unpublished
1996 companion, Safety Symbols Art: The Testing Protocol,
Materials & Results were relatively inaccessible
until IIID’s 2008 web posting. Now the prototypical
comprehension testing booklet materials are also downloadable
(SymbolComprehension Testing.pdf). The package includes
prototypes for the test booklet including a booklet
cover, project background, statements of the purpose
of comprehension testing, testing methodology, test
administration instructions, three sample symbol test
pages and a biographical information sheet for the respondent.
The IIID safety symbols comply with American
National Standards Institute's ANS Z535.3's standard
image content, symbol design criteria and comprehension
testing performance requirements. In addition, symbol
comprehension has been maximized because the individual
incorrect responses recorded during previous comprehension
testing of the 1991 Z535.3 symbol examples were reviewed
in order to assess critical details and qualities which
could minimize confusions and clarify comprehension.
These considerations were incorporated into the design
of the IIID safety symbols.
Subsequent comprehension testing of the
recrafted symbols confirmed that the incidence of critical
confusions and misreadings had been reduced by design
despite the fact that the testing of the IIID symbols
disproportionately included subjects expected to have
greater comprehension problems due to their age, education
and language. In addition, the consistent application
of the Z535.3 symbol design criteria to the IIID safety
symbols maximizes their legibility and visual coherence.
In response to this research, the
1998 edition of the Z535.3 Standard was revised to include
more appropriate symbol examples. Although ANSI principle
precludes endorsing any specific symbol art per se,
all subsequent (1998, 2002 & 2007) editions of Z535.3
reference both the IIID symbols and their comprehension
testing materials as exemplary. Indeed, the testing
instructions and testing booklet sample pages are reproduced,
with permission, in the Z535.3 Standard as exemplary
of the preferred open-ended testing method for evaluating
symbols.
ANS Z535.3-2007 is available @ $85 both as downloadable
copy or hard copy from the National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (www.NEMA.org).
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SymbolComprehension
Testing.pdf
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