Communication:Warnings and Labels

Principles of Warnings

• Be Brief and Complete• Prioritize• Know the Receiver• Design for the Low-End Receiver• Employ a Warning System• Design for Durability• Test the Warning

Be Brief and Complete

• Generally, warnings should be as brief as possible.

• Longer warnings, or those with nonessential information are less likely to be read, and may be more difficult to understand.

Prioritize• Prioritization

is concerned with what hazards to warn about and emphasize when multiple hazards exist.

Prioritization principles

• Likelihood • Severity• Known (or not known) to target population• Importance• Practicality

Know the Receiver

Human Factors of Communication

• Human factors is the study of the interaction of humans with systems, products, and the environment.

• Communication is defined as the collective, interactive process of generating and interpreting messages.

Research In Information Overload

• "In the last 30 years mankind has produced more information than in the previous 5,000.“

• Juliet Schor, a Professor of Sociology at Boston College has stated, "Technology reduces the amount of time it takes to do any one task but also leads to the expansion of tasks that people are expected to do." (Reuters Magazine March/April of 1997)

• "Dr Dharma Singh Khalsa, in his book Brain Longevity, published in 1998... He says the average American sees 16,000 advertisements, logos, and labels in a day." 

Conclusion of Module

• We have concluded discussing this module on warnings and labels.