دانلود رایگان مقاله ارتباط رنگ در طراحی نشانه سلامت کودکان

Abstract

Color has been more identified as a key consideration in ergonomics. Color conveys messages and is an important element in safety signs, as it provides extra information to users. However, very limited recent research has focused on children and their color association in the context of safety signs. This study thus examined how children use colors in drawing different safety signs and how they associate colors with different concepts and objects that appear in safety signs. Drawing was used to extract children's use of color and the associations they made between signs and colors. The child participants were given 12 referents of different safety signs and were asked to design and draw the signs using different colored felt-tip pens. They were also asked to give reasons for their choices of colors. Significant associations were found between red and ‘don't’, orange and ‘hands’, and blue and ‘water’. The child participants were only able to attribute the reasons for the use of yellow, green, blue and black through concrete identi- fication and concrete association, and red through abstract association. The children's use of color quite differs from that shown in the ISO registered signs. There is a need to consider the use of colors carefully when designing signs specifically for children. Sign designers should take children's color associations in consideration and be aware if there are any misunderstandings.

5. Conclusions

Recent studies have identified that the use of color is an important topic in human factor research as well as professional practice. Based on the results discussed above, the children's use of color quite differs from that shown in the ISO registered signs. In the context of safety signs, this is especially important, as color provides additional information about the nature of the hazard (Industrial Accident Prevention Association, 2007). It is possible that this additional information can be misunderstood if users associate the color with unintended concepts or objects. It is thus necessary to understand children's color associations before designing signs for them. The quantitative data and verbal explanations given by the children in this study provide information on this topic. In addition, the method used in this study has methodological implication to research involving children that drawing is also an effective method to obtain feedback from children.