A Proposed Method About the Design of Road Signs

Today, a clear and efficient communication requires a large use of graphical and pictorial signs, which are used in place of a text. In fact, the use of the text in the communication leads to comprehension problems to the reader in several daily situations. An example could be the case of the road signs. The road signs represent an application of technical communication with the aim of transmitting some contents by means of a system of signs, graphical symbols, and alphanumerical characters. The problem considered in this study is linked to the textual messages, generally placed below the road signs, which are written in a specific language. Adding texts to the road signs can lead to the reduction of their comprehension, especially for foreign drivers and/or pedestrians, and could require a time for reading them, which is incompatible with the traffic requirements. In the current situation, where we are having an increase of business and leisure trips, and with a more and more multiethnic society, the urgency of this issue has become more important. All these cases often present language issues. This article, therefore, aims at proposing a general method useful to "translate" the texts written below the road signs into graphical forms. The starting point of this idea is that the graphical language can be a universal communication form, able to overcome the language and the cultural differences.