When designing educational materials for public dissemination, many factors are important to ensure that the intended message reaches the target audience, especially when the message concerns public safety on our roadways. In support of various programs over the past few years, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has developed and distributed several empirically validated tip cards to assist Florida road users with commonly reported confusions as well as for newly implemented traffic control devices (for a recent validation of the flashing yellow arrow tip card for use by aging road users, see a previous research project BDV30-977-04). However, the efficacy of these educational materials in quickly conveying safety-relevant educational content largely depends on the appropriateness of the design for all intended audiences. Through the implementation of FDOT’s aging road user program, older adults (age 65 and older) — projected to reach 84 million by 2050 — are a priority when designing effective communications, as several age-related changes (i.e., declines in working memory and other cognitive and perceptual abilities) may present additional challenges to this population when navigating our roadways. Middle-aged adults, those aged 50 years and older, are also considered an important group of aging road users to educate. Outreach through improved communication is a vital component to reducing the crash, serious injury and fatality rates for this growing and vulnerable population and a focus area in Florida’s 2017 Aging Road User Strategic Safety Plan complementing the Florida Transportation Plan. In this project we first outline a general framework for effective communication that can guide design of communication materials. We review and evaluate the literature on aging and design pertaining to the factors identified in the framework. We explore guidelines currently in place for designing education materials and identify the particular design elements that serve to increase attention, comprehension, and memory, potentially leading to long-term behavior change, with a focus wherever possible on studies involving aging road users. In the process, we discuss several promising theories regarding factors that influence a population’s motivations to engage in a recommended behavior (Atkin & Rice, 2013). We incorporate those theories and data into a set of tip card design guidelines. In a series of tasks, including surveys, experimental, and driving simulator tasks, we tested standard and guideline-enhanced tip cards comparing the performance of younger, middle-aged, and older drivers to assess usability of the enhanced cards. Finally, based on the findings of those empirical studies, we refine our guidelines and provide templates for the design of future tip cards. In this project, our objective was to provide empirically-supported guidelines and templates for the design of tip cards and other public service transportation materials aimed at educating aging road users on traffic control devices. We addressed that objective with a series of tasks. Task 1 had the objective to identify relevant theories and existing data concerning the design of public service transportation materials for aging road users. Candidate theories include embodied cognition, the integrated model of behavioral prediction, and the Communication-Human Information Processing theory about the design of warning signs. We used that literature review to provide guidelines in the form of a human factors checklist for designing tip cards. Task 2 had the objective to produce tip cards to educate aging road users about correct actions to take when encountering flashing yellow arrow (FYA) and rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) on the roadway system. These materials were evaluated by conducting human factors usability testing stressing assessment of the dimensions of learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction. We compared standard and enhanced designs by conducting lab-based experimental studies of speeded decision making and by a driving simulator study testing samples of younger (21-35), middle (50-64) and older (65+) drivers. Task 3 had the objective, based on the outcomes of usability testing and validation, to produce updated guidelines and example templates for tip card generation, aimed particularly for aging road users (65 years and older), that attended to ordering and layout of components such as text and graphics, legibility of such materials (e.g., fonts, color, and contrast), yielding designs that support comprehensibility and memorability. We generated specific templates for tip card production in a variety of formats including Adobe standard formats as well as in Microsoft Powerpoint and Publisher. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting