Summary findings from the sign design research project...
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF IRELAND’S ROAD SIGNS:
- Research suggests that the design of Ireland’s dual-language road signs is poor – and can be greatly improved.
- In tests of clarity, a majority of users chose alternative designs in preference to Ireland’s current sign design (in spite of the familiarity of the existing design)1. Clearly, Ireland’s road users are receptive to changes to sign design.
- US research has shown that an ageing population profile has serious implications for road sign design – their initial recommendations suggested dramatically increasing sign size. However, a recent US sign design achieved greater clarity, without increasing sign size.
- Now, a new Irish prototype design shows
greater clarity can be achieved, with greater
differentiation between the Irish and English
language – improving the clarity and thereby
the reaction times to signs.
IRISH LANGUAGE
- The current design has the effect of damaging the legibility (and the relative importance) of Irish language place names.
- In tests for clarity, 77% of Irish language speakers chose a new sign design2. Irish speakers are clearly dissatisfied with our current signs.
- Oddly, our current signs are exempted
from the government’s own legislation on the
equal status of the Irish language. Prototype
designs show that Irish can be given equal
status to English, delivering the
government’s promise, whilst actually
improving the sign design for all users of
our roads.
