Column
Last change of content: December 2008
Leonard Verhoef
Contact.
What is the meaning of this sign?
Confusing safety pictogram: muster station
Column |
Published in European Sign Magazine, 1990, vol. 3, pag. 81. Last change of content: December 2008 Leonard Verhoef Contact. |
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This sign you can find on a ferry. What is the meaning of this sign? |
| One sign 11 interpretations |
When passengers are asked what this sign means the following answers are given: |
| This sign means: |
This sign indicates passengers assemble here in the event of an emergency. Muster stations are found in all rooms that are open to the public. There are two kinds of emergency. To top. | In a non representative investigation we could not find one single passenger who knew what this sign meant. The conditions were optimal; there was no emergency. The explanations which include the words 'meeting point' and 'emergency' are closest to the true meaning. |
| How to communicate this meaning? |
The fact that none of our subjects understood the meaning of this emergency pictogram is quite alarming. Ferry boat passengers can be given a lifeboat drill that includes an explanation of the pictogram. Unfortunately, this is not practicable for hundreds of ferry passengers who are sometimes only on board for a short time. To top. | Another way is to build a ship in such a way that all routes on the ship will automatically lead to a muster station. In this case the exit signs would lead to both the exit and the muster station. Today that is current practice for some ferry boat builders. For existing ships this is not a solution and a sign is needed. | The designers of this pictogram did not apply basic psychological knowledge. With cognitive psychology it is possible to design a muster station pictogram that is understood in emergency situations, without training and even under stress. |
| How to improve this pictogram | Several persons in our unofficial investigation thought the figures in the pictogram were a family; probably this is caused by having persons of different gender and size. Only when type of person is relevant this should be in the picture (e.g. in the case of a picture for toilet). If type of person is not relevant than all persons should be of the same type. |  | In the first picture, dark green and white are both used for the persons and the background in different signs. Seven persons are dark green and three other persons are white as are five arrows. In addition, some persons act as both figure and background, i.e. the four arrows and the three tall persons. Finally with some persons there is a change in foreground and background luminosity; the three tall persons have a white body but a dark green head. This large amount of graphical differences do not reflect any difference in content. All persons should be presented in the same way. | The fact that before abandoning ship the passengers have to be gathered from all corners to this point, is essential to the crew but not to the passengers. Therefore there is no need to emphasize the aspect of assembly in the sign as it is in the sign now. A sign which depicts a lifeboat will probably be understood better by the passengers as being a muster station. If it is still desirable to emphasize the aspect of assembly a pictogram representing a number of people lining up to board a lifeboat could be shown. Text might be better and could be included anyway. In that case I would prefer the more international word “assembly” and not “muster” that only will be understood by native English readers. In emergency communication is essential. Each station should have an identifier. |
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Understanding signs decreases dramatically in case of an emergency. It is hard to understand that the International Maritime Organisation accepted this sign as a world wide standard for ferries. To top. | After the first publication of this column in 1990 two major ferry accidents (Harold of Free Enterprise and Estonia) made clear that emergency control on ferries was not as it should be. |  |
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Contact | Leonard Verhoef. +31 (30) - 231 44 97 Parkstraat 19 3581 PB Utrecht Nederland humanefficiency.nl verhoef@humanefficiency.nl Chamber of commerce, trade register, subscription number: 39057871. |
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