The influences of exit signage on humans during fire emergency egress: a review

Emergency exit signage is an essential tool under fire safety which acts as a guidance for occupants when experiencing unexpected emergency such as fires. Requirement of exit signage installation and its specific features had been mandated under By-Law 172 of Uniform Building By-Laws (UBBL) 1984 which depicts its importance, hence designation of an effective exit signage is necessary in order to effectively deliver the messages of directional and exit pathway to the occupants. In this study, a total of 29 articles had been selected for qualitative review which were collected from online databases by using a deductive approach based on the research questions. Hence, the result emphasizes on three themes which are types of exit signage, design of exit signage and the placement of exit signage. In term of type of exit signs, the application of dynamic exit signage showed better performance as occupants were found to have lower evacuation periods, higher compliance rates, shorter traveled distances, and fewer breaks taken throughout the egress phase compared to static exit signs. Whereas for exit signage design, green signage expressed stronger guiding and evacuation effects either in individual or group egress and it is suggested to include both pictograms: arrow and running man on exit signs to prevent misinterpretation and increase its detection rate. In addition, a design of multidimensional arrow instead of 2D arrow also was proven to be more effective to convey the evacuation direction. Apart from that, the placement of signage is also being analyzed in terms of its height where it is found out that floor level signage provides better visibility during egress but showed limitation with presence of disturbers. Degree of installation of exit signage is best to take the suitable distance and interaction angle into consideration which increase the signage coverage area. Based on the analysis and comparison made in this study shows that implementation of exit signage should be considered from its initial designation process including its equipped features until the way of an exit sign being installed in building in order to ensure that the exit signs are placed within the visibility coverage area of occupants. Therefore, this study can be used as a reference in improving the effectiveness of emergency exit signage in aiding occupants toward a safe egress.