Prepared by: |
Christina M. Rudin-Brown |
July 2002
TP 13987 E
|
|
Mike Greenley |
|
Andrea Barone |
|
Joe Armstrong |
|
Alice Salway |
|
Beverley Norris |
How to get the full report
ABSTRACT
Transport Canada is in the process of updating its standard for the
adhesion properties of child restraint system (CRS) labels and warnings.
At the same time, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) has proposed changes intended to make CRS labels and instructions
clearer and simpler to understand. Transport Canada is very
supportive of this objective, and is also considering amending its label
requirements. Based on a passive evaluation of CRS labels, NHTSA
made a number of proposed changes to their existing label requirements.
To complement these passive evaluations, the present study compared the
effectiveness of four different CRS label conditions on actual users’
CRS installation behaviour.
The four label conditions included:
- no labels;
- the manufacturer labels (‘Consumer’; these labels
conform to the current requirements for labeling of the Canadian Motor
Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS), which are very similar to the current
U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) requirements);
- labels designed according to a combination of the NHTSA current
regulations and their proposed changes (‘NHTSA’), and
- labels based
on a behavioural task analysis that were designed according to human
factors principles and guidelines (‘Optimal’).
Results demonstrated that, overall, the Optimal labels resulted in
higher usability ratings and better task performance. This indicates
that labels designed using human factors principles and hierarchical task
analyses that identify critical task information requirements for label
features will result in increased user compliance with instructions,
higher usability, and improved task performance. Results from the
study also demonstrate that label design can decrease task performance,
and that the actual design of a CRS may be more critical than label
content in the choices it affords the user.
Results of the study suggest that implementation of the recommended
changes to the U.S. FMVSS concerning CRS labeling would likely not result
in increased performance or usability compared to existing consumer labels
that follow the current FMVSS guidelines. In order to achieve
significantly better ease-of-use and proper CRS installation, it would be
necessary to implement features of the Optimal label condition.
How to get the full report:
The full report "Behavioural
Evaluation of Child Restraint System (CRS) Label/Warning Effectiveness"
is available in portable
document format (PDF - 5,074KB).
To view PDF documents you must use Adobe® Acrobat Reader. Visit the
Adobe site to download the latest, free version.
If you need an alternative format or for more information, please contact us by e-mail at
RoadSafetyWebMail@tc.gc.ca
or call toll free 1-800-333-0371 (Ottawa area (613) 998-8616).
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