The Physiological Experimental Study on the Effect of Different Color of Safety Signs on a Virtual Subway Fire Escape—An Exploratory Case Study of Zijing Mountain Subway Station

Safety signs play a very important role in people&rsquo
s evacuation during emergencies. In order to explore the appropriate color for subway safety signs, four safety signs of different color combinations are designed, and the virtual reality, eye-tracking technology, and physiological indicator measurement are used in a virtual subway fire escape experiment. A total of 96 participants with equal distribution in gender and four different color combination groups were recruited. Participants&rsquo
eye-tracking and physiological data (heart rate, skin conductance) were real-time recorded through ErgoLAB V3.0 in the whole experiment. The relationship between Color_of_safety_sign and escape performance, eye-tracking indicators, and physiological indicators is discussed respectively through SPSS. The results show that &ldquo
Green and black&rdquo
group has the best evacuation escape performance, low cognitive load, high search efficiency on safety signs, and the highest stress level and immersion and &ldquo
can be the most appropriate color for safety sign. This research is of certain significance for improving the function of subway fire-fighting infrastructure and the resilience of the metro system. Moreover, it can provide references and advice on risk management, emergency evacuation, and so on.