Study into the Use of Signage on Exit Choice Behaviour in a Virtual Environment

The effectiveness of egress paths from a building could be attributed to good signage or intuitive Architecture but we know it is also influenced by human behaviour in fire. The extent to which human behaviour plays a role in the effectiveness of egress routes is not yet fully understood.The aim of this paper is to investigate human behaviour in a relatively simple study of exit choice. The study is conducted in a virtual environment by examining the effectiveness of additional floor-based chevron arrows when compared with conventional exit signage on the same escape routes.Fifty nine participants were asked to interact with the software to escape from a fire in the created virtual environment. Thirty two of the participants used a model with conventional exit signs only. Twenty seven of the participants used the model with exit signs and chevrons on the floor. After completing the virtual egress exercise the participants were given a questionnaire to help understand their behaviour during the task. This allowed the authors to compare results of the post experiment questionnaire with the video output of the test.This research is novel in that involves the use of already existing technologies for new purposes; in this case, commercial computer games engines, generally used for entertainment purposes. As technology reaches new levels it is inevitable that there will be overlap in functionality.This paper describes the experiments, analyses the information gleaned from the research and provides some conclusions for consideration by others in this field. By assessing exit choice behaviour and evacuation time it is possible to compare the effectiveness of the additional floor based signage as a fire protection measure provided above and beyond normal code requirements.