Identifying fall-protection training needs for residential roofing subcontractors.

Falls remain the leading cause of injuries and fatalities in the small residential roofing industry and analogous investigations are underrepresented in the literature. To address this issue, fall-protection training needs were explored through 29 semi-structured interviews among residential roofing subcontractors with respect to recommendations for the design of fall-protection training. Content analysis using grounded theory was conducted to analyze participants' responses. Results of the analysis revealed six themes related to the design of current fall-protection training: (1) barriers to safety training; (2) problems of formal safety-training programs; (3) recommendations for training implementation; (4) important areas for fall-protection training; (5) training delivery means; and (6) design features of training materials. Results of the study suggest the need for informal jobsite safety training to complement what had been covered in formalized safety training. This work also provides recommendations for the design of a more likely adopted fall-protection training program.

Evaluation of pictorial assembly instructions for young children.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the usability of common formats of pictorial toy assembly instructions for 6- and 9-year-old children. BACKGROUND: Interlocking building toys and models are increasingly prevalent and important for developing spatial abilities and fine motor skills among children. Little is known about how effectively the intended child users can interpret and carry out the instructions. METHOD: Twenty-four children used five sets of manufacturer-supplied pictorial toy assembly instructions. We evaluated the impact of toy instruction set, age, gender, and previous experience on usability problems, assembly speed and accuracy, instruction gaze time, and subjective ratings. RESULTS: The children had difficulty with all but the simplest instructions and assemblies. As predicted, older participants assembled more quickly, with fewer errors and fewer instruction looks. However, the 6-year-old girls assembled the fewest parts correctly, and the 9-year-old girls reported having the least fun. Instruction look time and frequency revealed differences in instruction complexity and were correlated with subjective ratings of fun. Thirty-two usability problems were observed, and 10 are described in detail. CONCLUSION: Product age recommendations may not reflect developmentally appropriate instructions. Small design changes should contribute to improved instruction usability among young children. For instance, designers should avoid complex graphic syntax, depict colors accurately, select clear angles of view, and support natural tendencies to assemble top to bottom. APPLICATION: This research provides pictorial assembly instruction guidelines to inform instruction designers and describes performance and look-time benchmarks for future usability studies.

Research-based guidelines for warning design and evaluation.

During the past two decades, the body of empirical research on warning design and evaluation has grown. Consequently, there are now basic principles and guidelines addressing warning design (e.g., signal words, color, symbols, and text/content), placement (e.g., location within product instructions), and how to enhance the usability of designs by considering factors internal to the user (e.g., beliefs, perceptions of risk, stress). Similarly, evaluation methods have been developed that can be used to measure the effectiveness of warnings such as the degree to which warnings are communicated to recipients and the degree to which they encourage or influence behavioral compliance. An overview of the empirical literature on warning guidelines and evaluation approaches is provided. Researchers, practitioners, and manufacturers can use these guidelines in various contexts to reduce the likelihood that injury and product damage from exposure to a hazard will occur.

Cultural ergonomics in Ghana, West Africa: a descriptive survey of industry and trade workers' interpretations of safety symbols.

Globalization and technology transfer have led to the diffusion of risk communications to users from cultures that were not initially viewed as the target users. This study examined industry and trade workers' overall impressions of symbols used to convey varying degrees of hazardousness. Six symbols, including symbols from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535 Standard (ANSI, 1998) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3864:1984 Standard (ISO, 1984) were selected. With the exception of the SKULL symbol, results showed wide discrepancies between users' perceptions of the symbols and their intended meanings. Implications for cross-cultural research on warning components and risk communications are discussed.