University Libraries Signage Redevelopment for Emergency Exits:

Creating More Effective Signage for Cross-Cultural Communication

Prepared for
University Libraries Administration Office
Assistant Dean and Building Curator J. Mark Pike
Kent, Ohio, 44240

Prepared by
Dylan H. Tyler

July 22, 2016

Date:

July 17, 2016

To:

University Libraries Administration Office, J. Mark Pike

From:

Dylan H. Tyler

Subject:

Redeveloping Emergency Exit Signage for Cross-Cultural Communication

The intention of this report is to demonstrate the effects of implementing new cross-cultural
signage for the librarys emergency exits. This report examines how other buildings on the Kent
State campus, along with academic libraries at other higher education institutions, utilize
cross-cultural signage via self-observation and secondary sources.
My Findings and Recommendations
Each time one of the emergency exit doors is opened, a loud alarm is sounded. Because
Circulation Services is located the closest to the emergency exit doors, our department
responds to the alarms by turning them off, and logging each time the alarms are falsely tripped.
Also, every time the alarm goes off, the Kent State Police Department receives a call-to-respond
message to send over at least one officer to ensure the safety of the library. Police having to
respond to false alarms can limit them from effectively responding to an actual emergency that
may occur at the same time. As of July 2015, the alarm has been falsely tripped 35 times
510 times in the summers and 2025 times in both the fall and spring semesters.
Currently, the signage on the librarys emergency exit doors are not compliant with international
design standards. Although the signs are ADA and OSHA compliant, any person who speaks
English as a second language may and many have already experienced difficulties in
comprehending the current signs for two main reasons: (1) The signs are printed only in
English, and (2) the color of the signs is blue, not red which [red] is a ubiquitously recognized
color meaning stop.
I recommend we redesign the signs to be more conducive for cross-cultural communication.
Changing the colors from the Kent State University Communications and Marketing (UCM)
approved color scheme white text on a navy-blue background to white text on a red
background will grab the viewers attention more successfully. The Universitys approved
typeface, Univers, is recognized internationally as cross-cultural compliant and requires no
change. The new signs should also include several translations of emergency exit for different

languages, which include but not limited to Hindi, Standard Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese,
French, and Arabic.
Recommendation for Future Action
Because other buildings on campus, along with libraries at other academic institutions, have
implemented cross-cultural signage for emergency exits, false alarm incidents have reduced
significantly, although not completely. Having spent a great deal of time finding resources that
contains research on cross-cultural signage within academic libraries, I was not able to find
much that pushes the issue further. Moreover, adding elements like flashing red LED lights
could also be beneficial. Perhaps eventually, implementing these changes into other media and
signage within the library such as pamphlets/brochures, flyers, and research guides could
reduce communication barriers further.
Thank you for allowing me to conduct this report on behalf of the library. If you have any
questions or issues about the report, please do not hesitate to contact me at (216)5980862 or
dtyler3@kent.edu. I look forward to seeing how my participation and research of this subject
could significantly improve communication within the library.

Table of Contents

Memo of Transmittal i-ii.

Executive Summary ... iii.
Introduction.. 1.
Purpose and Scope. 1.
Methods.1.
Design Guidelines and Procedures1-3.
Analysis of Secondary Source Research and In-Person Observations..4
Conclusions...5
Recommendations....6
References7.

Executive Summary

To reduce the number of false alarms that occur due to patrons exiting through the emergency
exit doors, the library should remove the current signage on the doors and replace them with
new signs that are more conducive for cross-cultural communication. Most of the patrons exiting
through the emergency exits are international students who speak english as a second
language. International students, faculty, staff, and guests are essential to maintaining a
diverse, functional university, contributing unique insights and perspectives to the academic
culture. Because international students, faculty, staff, and guests have to work harder than
others at learning and mastering the English language, an academic librarys main focus should
be to provide easy, free access to various channels of internationally comprehensible
information, which includes in-building signage.
After devoting a significant amount of time researching this problem, I have found the
emergency exit matter to be the most pertinent. When a patron exits through the emergency exit
doors, a loud alarm sounds. Not only is the alarm distracting to library guests who desire to work
in an environment with little-to-no distractions, the alarm also requires the police to immediately
respond even if it is a false alarm. Police officers having to respond to a false alarm takes
away from them responding effectively to an actual emergency if one were to happen
concurrently. Circulation Services also has to send over one of its workers to turn off the alarm
since it is the closest service area to all of the emergency exits. When patrons were informed
they had exited through emergency exit doors, they claimed, more often than not, they had no
idea. Therefore, replacing the current signs on the emergency exit doors can greatly reduce the
number of false alarm incidents.
In order to improve the signs, I suggest the following:
1. Change the color of the signs
a. Currently, the signs have a blue background. Changing the signs to a red color
will reduce the number of incidents. Red is a universal color for stop.
b. Keep the typeface color as white, since white on red works well for catching
ones attention
2. Change the size of the signs
a. Because the emergency exit doors have large windows on them, covering both
the top and bottom glass on the doors will make the doors look less inviting.
3. Maintain or change typography
a. Although Univers is an acceptable typeface for international comprehension,
Helvetica is considered to be even better.

b. The words Emergency Exit should be Univers 67 or Helvetica Bold at 700

points centered in white.
c. Add slightly smaller multi-language translations of Emergency Exit below the
english version Univers 55 or Helvetica Light at 500 points centered in white.

Introduction
In an attempt to circumvent false alarm events while concurrently enhancing cross-cultural
communication within the library, University Libraries has investigated and assessed ways to
improve signage on emergency exit doorways. Moreover, the research contained within this
report provides support and data for such an endeavor.
Purpose and Scope
Because Kent State University is a diverse, multicultural academic institution with over 41,005
students enrolled in its entire eight-campus system over 3,000 of which are international
students (KSU Student Enrollment Data, 2015) it is imperative for the university and its
library system to meet the needs of all its students, faculty, staff, and visitors. However,
individuals who are from another country or culture are more likely to be presented with
challenges regarding language barriers and assimilating to cultural norms than domestic
individuals are. Although the library is constantly striving to improve its communication efforts, it
is currently focusing on preventing communication breakdowns that lead to false alarm events.
False alarm events not only create a disturbance for patrons wishing to study in a quiet
environment, it also requires the KSU Police Department to dispatch at least one-to-two officers
to investigate the situation, reducing the number of available police officers in the event of an
actual emergency potentially occurring at the same time.
This report will elaborate on the following topics: What types of cross-cultural signage have
proven to be effective in other KSU campus buildings or academic libraries at different higher
education institutions; how to design effective cross-cultural signage to prevent patrons from
incorrectly exiting the building through emergency exits; and the technology required and its
cost.
Methods
All of the sources, research, and visual aids in this research report was found online though the
Kent State University website, the Kent State University Libraries scholarly journal databases,
and personal observation. For complete details on all of this content, please see the references
page at the end of this report.

Design Guidelines and Procedures

All signage, publications, and design work must incorporate the university approved branding,
which includes the official Kent State logo with the rising sun when needed, the approved
typefaces Univers and Baskerville and color scheme (Guide to Visual Standards, 2015).
Design standards and guidelines ensure the visual aesthetics of the university are harmonious
and consistent. The exception to the rule is signage indicating emergency exits or disaster
areas, which follows a universal design standard. University Communications and Marketing
(UCM) is in charge of designing, approving, and disseminating all communications-related
materials for the university. Any design work created outside of the UCM offices must follow the
guidelines and procedures listed within their publication: Illuminating Our New Brand, or else
the designer responsible for violating the guidelines could face legal ramifications.
Signage, which includes ones for emergency exits, is manufactured and erected through the
Office of the University Architect. However, if a department were to create its own signage, both
UCM and the Office of the University Architect have to approve it before it may be posted.
Although the signage for the emergency exit doors were created in the librarys communications
offices were approved by both offices to post, the university-approved design standards is not
conducive for indicating an emergency exit.
Emergency Exit False Alarms
Ever since the approved signage for the emergency exits was posted on the doors over two
years ago, the number of patrons exiting through the doors has increased significantly. The
emergency exit doors have two glass windows a large window on the top portion and smaller
one on the bottom. The signage on the doors is pasted on the larger-top glass of each door.
Along the perimeter of the doorframe is more glass. Typically, emergency exit doors are either
solid, or have a small window. Typical emergency exit doors often have an emergency door
handle that looks different from traditional handles.
The original signage for the doors was smaller in size, but red in color. The current, larger
signage uses the navy-blue Kent State color for its background with large, white text. Although
the signage is undoubtedly noticeable, there exists a communication barrier that seems to
perpetuate communication breakdowns and false alarm incidents.
Most of the patrons who inadvertently exit through the emergency exit doors are international
students who are not from the United States, speaking English as a second language. However,
there have been a few cases of domestic students exiting through the doors, but this is usually
due to them being visually distracted (i.e. cell phones, talking to friends, etc). When the

patrons were confronted after incorrectly exiting the building, most of them had no idea and had
trouble speaking and understanding English fluently.
Once a false alarm is sounded, the response is threefold: (1) Staff members in the Circulation
Services Department must respond immediately by turning off alarm, (2) police must be
informed immediately upon arrival of a false alarm event; and (3) an incident report form must
be filled out by Circulation staff.
The police department, patrons, and staff are becoming more frustrated at the number of false
alarm events that occur. More pressure is being applied to the administrative offices of the
library to remedy the issue in a prompt manner.

Analysis of Secondary Source Research and In-Person Observations

Because the librarys incident report sheets do not include any type of field to indicate the
patron-type (Domestic, International, Visitor, etc) trends are based off of hear-say and
personal observations. The following information is based off of the aforementioned
observations, secondary sources, and informal interviews.
Current Design Flaws of Library Emergency Exit Signage
According to Gibson (2009), emergency exit signage is considered a regulatory sign type.
Regulatory sign types are most effective when the color red is used most prominently, since red
universally signifies the action of stopping (Gibson, 2009). The current emergency exit signs in
the library are navy-blue in color. According to Aslam (2005), blue is perceived as calming and
cool in temperature across a majority of cultures. The blue color that is used on the current
signs does not grab ones attention immediately, let alone communicate to the individual to stop.
The typeface that is currently being used on the sign albeit effective and internationally
understood is extremely pronounced, two issues exist: (1) there is only one language
english on the sign that says Emergency Exit, and (2) the white type on blue background
does not grab the same amount of attention that white type on a red background would grab
(Gibson, 2009). Univers is a san-serif font that is highly legible from far distances. The weight of
the font is 600 bold at 700 points, which is very effective at catching ones attention (Gibson,
2009).
Although the signs cover a significant portion of the glass, it fails to cover the bottom portion and
the perimeter glass. Making the exit way as dark as possible could reduce unintended foot
traffic.

What Other Academic Libraries and KSU Buildings Have Done

Buildings such as the Kent State Student Center have solid door emergency exits with a small
window. According to the KSU Police Department, there are significantly less false alarms in the
Student Center than the library. Moreover, the library is second for most false alarms after the
dormitories.
The University of Akrons library marks its emergency exits more clearly. Not only do they use
large signage with a red background, the door handle has a red bar, and the sign features
multiple languages. The information desk clerk at the Akron library reports 5-7 false alarm
incidents annually.

Conclusion
The signage designating the emergency exits within the library are not effective. Not only are
the signs not effective at communicating cross-culturally, they fail to grab peoples attention.
Changing the signage can reduce false alarm incidents, prevent the police from having to
respond to the library when there is not an emergency, and improve overall patron satisfaction.

Recommendations

How the Signs Can Be Improved

Changing the background to a heavy red color will help prevent unintended exits. Moreover, it
will amplify the white Univers type on the sign. If one were to feel compelled to do so, the sign
would be slightly stronger if the typeface Helvetica were used instead. Helvetica is also a
san-serif typeface with high legibility (Gibson, 2009).
Adding different translations of Emergency Exit to the sign with a slightly smaller font size will
help overcome the current language barriers. According to Wang and Frank (2002), library
signage, pamphlets, and other communications material should have multiple versions in
different languages to accommodate international students. To provide an example of why
direct translations are necessary: some international students have issues understanding the
label checkout counter, thinking the counter is meant to be checked out rather than it being the
location where books are circulated (Wang & Frank, 2002).

References
Aslam, M. M. (2006, 03). Are You Selling the Right Colour? A Cross-cultural Review of Colour
as a Marketing Cue. Journal of Marketing Communications, 12(1), 15-30.
doi:10.1080/13527260500247827
Gibson, D. (2009). The wayfinding handbook: Information design for public places. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press.
Guide to Visual Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved July 18, 2016, from
https://www.kent.edu/ucm/guide-visual-standards-0
Wang, J., & Frank, D. G. (2002). Cross-Cultural Communication: Implications for Effective
Information Services In Academic Libraries. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2(2),
207-216. doi:10.1353/pla.2002.0046