A Preliminary Surveying of the Meaning of Colored Pictogram Instructions for Emergency Settings in Manufacturing

Pictograms are often used for situations where people often do not share the same language. The authors surveyed the comprehension of colored pictograms for emergency situations in manufacturing which can be affected by cultural and educational backgrounds. Colored pictograms for manufacturing setting, such as 'push', 'step' and 'wheel', were designed and presented to workers with different cultural and educational backgrounds in a factory. Their acting behavior scales were examined by conducting a questionnaire survey. Pictograms in different seven colors, such as white, black, red, yellow, green, blue and pink, were used in the survey. The questionnaire was presented to 138 factory workers in Thailand with three different nationalities: Thai, Myanmar and Cambodia. Results indicate that colors have effects on their acting behaviors. The mean values of the acting behavior scales for a group with higher educational backgrounds marked the highest of over 50% for red. On the other hand, the average value of middle and low educated groups marked the lowest of less than 3% for red color.