Diseño de señales

Design Guide - Sign Design

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Signage that is effective benefits everyone. It also enables people with visual impairments, deaf people and people with learning difficulties to use the environment as independently as possible.
It is within your best interests to adopt 'good practice' when replacing any signs, therefore fulfilling your obligations under the Disability Discrimination Actto provide auxiliary aids.
Visual impairment is one of the most common impairments that people in the UK face. It is estimated that there are around 2 million people with some significant level of visual impairment. We need to ensure that the environment that we provide is as accessible as possible, which includes providing signage in a form that visually impaired people can use.
It is of littleconsequence to sighted people what colour a sign is or whether it is embossed or contains Braille. However it makes the world of difference to a visually impaired person.
What you see at the top of the page is an illustration of a well-designed sign. (Minus Braille or embossing)
▪ In a sans serif font
▪ Large enough to see at a distance
▪ Ranged left for ease ofreading (if a directional arrow pointed left it would be ranged right)
▪ Directional arrow near enough to follow easily
▪ Good colour contrast
It would work well in black and white or reversed:
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Blue and white or reversed:
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For signs to work they have to be clear, concise and consistent. They should be only used when necessary. Think about what information you needto convey. Could some of it be on a notice board and just have the important information that is needed on a set of clear well thought out signs? Or could other information be given further along the route to make the initial sign clearer?
Here is a poorly designed sign:
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The colours are not good for some people with visual impairments and it has poor colour contrast. The typeface is tofancy and the arrows are not easy to see.

There are four types of signs:
Information Signs
These are the signs that people use to orientate themselves when they first reach a building: name sign, car park, entrance and the main locations within the buildings.
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Directional Signs
Enable people to find destinations and often include arrows or other directional text. In large buildingsthey may contain more than one location and care should be taken to ensure that the directional arrows are easily read.
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Identification Signs
These are used for individual locations and usually indicate a particular room or service.
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Mandatory Signs
These include the essential signs such as fire exits, warning signs etc. They are covered by British Standards and the correctprescribed sign should always be used.
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The Language of Signs
What is said on a sign and how it appears is very important.
▪ Use words that are readily understood;
▪ Avoid abbreviations which are difficult for visually impaired people and people with learning difficulties;
▪ Be consistent with the terminology;
▪ Only give as muchinformation as is needed at that point in time – supplementary signs can be used further along the route if necessary;
▪ But also ensure that the meaning is conveyed and not mislead through trying to make the sign too concise.
Sign Style
▪ Capitals and lower case should always be used. The use of all capitals can cause difficulty in reading quickly for many people. (The exception ofcourse is for the traditional well recognised: EXIT, TAXI etc);
▪ Typefaces should always be sans serif: such as Helvetica Medium, Ariel, Avant Garde, Futura;
▪ Try not to use full stops or commas, if you have names on signs print them out as: Mr D Right
▪ Colour can be used to divide signs into different departments but be aware that this can cause confusion, as it...