Using Pictograms to Make Transit Easier to Navigate for Customers with Communication Barriers (2013)

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TCRP A-33A Final Report 30 CHAPTER 3 Findings and Applications Table 2 captures the numbers of participants who said they understood the message; the number whose response indicated a limited understanding; and those who said they did not understand or whose comments missed the message entirely. Table 2. Responses from Pictogram Discussion Groups Understand message Somewhat understand Do not understand No answer #1: Look At Me 17 3 8 1 #2: Listen 17 5 6 1 #3: Turn Off 26 1 1 1 #4: Stay Calm 6 5 18 0 #5: Follow Me 14 5 10 0 #6: Stay Seated 17 4 8 0 #7: Delay 4 7 18 0 #8: Change in Route 11 6 11 1 #9: Danger 16 2 10 1 #10: Help Is Coming 3 8 17 1 n= 29 1. As Table 2 shows, the pictograms that received the highest scores in understanding were: • “Turn Off” – This pictogram was the most well received pictogram by participants – 26 participants said they understood the pictogram message. o Several participants noted, however, that they believed that passengers would not turn off their cell/mobile phones in an emergency situation. o Several suggested showing only the ear buds or headphones with a negation line through them, to indicate that phones or other electronics could stay activated but ears needed to be free for listening to directions. • “Look At Me,” “Listen,” and “Stay Seated” – 17 participants said they understood each of these pictogram messages. o Two participants said the design of the ear should be changed to look less like a hearing aid symbol. One man with a hearing aid thought it meant turn off his hearing aid. o The arrows surrounding the ear confused some participants. They indicated they were not sure what to listen to – the driver or all sounds coming from different directions. Several suggested using sound waves instead of arrows, but others said that might indicate a message from a sound system instead of the driver. • “Help Is Coming” was the least understood pictogram.

TCRP A-33A Final Report 31 o Only three people said they understood the message. o Eight understood that “help” was part of the message, but may have been reading the words rather than comprehending the image. o Several people thought the image meant, “A collision will occur.” o Three people thought the image meant, “The bus will wait for an ambulance to pass.” • “Danger,” “Change in Route,” and “Follow Me” received the most inconsistent responses. o Participants either said they understood the message clearly or they responded in a way that indicated they did not understand. o In the Kansas City pilot test in which the words underneath the image were removed, participants offered more widely varying interpretations of these pictograms, although the meanings of “Danger” and “Follow Me [the driver]” were understood. This suggests that in other pilot tests, participants may have been reading the words rather than understanding the image, as noted by observers. 2. The responses from the 29 participants to pictogram content varied from apparent broad understanding of the message to attempts to describe (usually wrongly) what the individual thought was going on in the picture. Sometimes, respondents wrote nothing on their comment cards. • The messages that relayed concrete actions with objective messages (“Turn Off”) scored the highest in participant understanding among all participants, regardless of the presence of explanatory text. • Pictograms with abstract messages about how people should feel (“Stay Calm”) generally were not well understood or completely misunderstood, even among those who could read the words. • Pictograms that conveyed information about what was happening inside the bus were better understood than those related to things occurring outside the bus. Application: Identify pictograms that convey concrete, objective messages about activities inside the bus (those with the greatest levels of understanding by the discussion group participants) for future pictogram research study. 3. Participants universally wanted the pictures to be larger, regardless of their level of understanding. Some commented they could not see the picture well, especially when seated at the back of the bus. Several observed that pictures that convey urgency or negative actions, such as “Turn Off,” should be in a circle rather than a rectangle to conform to more widely used or familiar pictograms, such as “No Smoking.” One driver said, “A rectangle means this direction has to do with your well-being and we are requesting you to do this, but a circle is authoritative and means ‘Do this now.’”

TCRP A-33A Final Report 32 Application: Revise and refine the most accepted designs based on end-user comments. Retest this smaller set of pictograms with a larger group of transit agencies. Testing to further refine the effectiveness and acceptability of these pictograms must be comprehensive and vigorous. In addition, testing needs to be conducted on the how the pictograms will be used – held by drivers standing at the front of a bus; on a visual display at the front of the bus; in a brochure similar to the ones used on airlines to inform passengers about safety procedures; or in another form or fashion. 4. Partnering with the transit agencies and their community service provider partners to set up, recruit and conduct the focus groups was very productive. Questions about procedures were answered early through calls and email with the transit agencies’ points of contact. The transit agencies quickly “owned” the pilot effort, once it was approved by senior management. Points of contact recruited bus drivers and coordinated with community service partners to establish the time, date and place of the test. The research team applauds and is grateful for the transit agencies’ cooperation and hard work – and the expense – that was essential to conduct these tests. The team also expresses gratitude to the community service partners who collaborated with the transit systems, transported people to and from the pilot sites, and helped with translation or interpretation. Application: Use the “focus group in a box” model created in this research study to conduct pilot tests of pictograms in the future. While professionally trained facilitators certainly would be preferred to provide control and impartiality in the testing, this project demonstrated that a research team could depend on transit agency staff to manage the logistics and facilitation of pilot tests.