Receiver Characteristics in Safety Communications

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Abstract
Safety instructions and warnings are communications. It is important that characteristics of receivers, the target audience, be taken into account in designing such communications. Four categories of receiver characteristics that are important for warnings are demographic (gender and age), familiarity and experience with the product or situation, competence (technical knowledge, language and reading ability), and the perception of hazardousness. Research and experience indicate that variability in these receiver dimensions has important implications for the design and effectiveness of warnings. Even when the warning designer has attempted to take into account these target audience factors, there is a final step that generally should be included in the design process. This step is to “test” the warning on a target audience sample.

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