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Thanks for digging up those studies. I hope those weren't the only tests that were conducted. Two groups of 12, 65 years plus, daytime and night time. Word rec

by kriro 11y ago

Thanks for digging up those studies. I hope those weren't the only tests that were conducted. Two groups of 12, 65 years plus, daytime and night time. Word recognition test+legibility test (2 studies with the same setup/subjects etc.). Tested words: Purcel, Dorset, Conyer, Bergen, Ordway, Gurley. Parked car (1993 Ford) at varying distances. Repeat-measures design. ANOVA for material and ANOVA + t-tests for fonts. They used the same sign with bolt-on names for all different cases so the issue linked in the OP doesn't apply to this test. So we have no weather conditions, a very selective population (also notable that gender isn't mentioned at all which is normally standard practice in the subjects section), a questionable list of words (no mention what word/letter distributions look like and why this specific group was picked...they do explain why they built the word group the way they did however). Only one vehicle type. No discussion of sample size, power etc. in the linked studies. It's a decent set of constraints for a single test but we're talking about highway signs for the general population I'd expect more extensive tests than that.

vonklaus 11y ago
I deleted my sarcastic response to you upthread, but it could probably be interpreted that their testing methodology might not be accurately summed up as a "you failed science 101" level of embarrassment mistake as you so aptly put it, and that they in fact did a reasonable job creating typefaces that represented the fonts used on highways which were objectively compared in their control environments. Also, they ran 2 tests and they somehow used, or read research by someone who had run, a computer simulation of font degradation to anticipate how it would age. So, I am not sure this is nobel prize worthy, but a bit disingenuous to claim they they are complete morons. edit: while I don't laud the amazing efficiency of our peer reviewed science system, you might also find these included works helpful, these ones seem relavent. I must admit, not being even remotely interested in traffic fonts or the testing of them, I have not read them. Peer reviewed research papers by Donald Meeker as author or co-author have been published by: Transportation Research Record, National Academy of Sciences (2 author, 3 co-author) Ergonomics in Design, the Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (co-author) Transportation Engineering, the Journal of American Society of Civil Engineers (author)
WorldMaker 11y ago
It's still more testing and science than Highway Gothic ever got before being installed... Certainly we've had decades of real world experience with it since then, but it's fascinating seeing so many people being so critical against Clearview and it's design science versus Highway Gothic, which had far less rigorous a design process and evaluation.

by kriro 11y ago

vonklaus 11y ago

I deleted my sarcastic response to you upthread, but it could probably be interpreted that their testing methodology might not be accurately summed up as a "you failed science 101" level of embarrassment mistake as you so aptly put it, and that they in fact did a reasonable job creating typefaces that represented the fonts used on highways which were objectively compared in their control environments. Also, they ran 2 tests and they somehow used, or read research by someone who had run, a computer simulation of font degradation to anticipate how it would age. So, I am not sure this is nobel prize worthy, but a bit disingenuous to claim they they are complete morons. edit: while I don't laud the amazing efficiency of our peer reviewed science system, you might also find these included works helpful, these ones seem relavent. I must admit, not being even remotely interested in traffic fonts or the testing of them, I have not read them. Peer reviewed research papers by Donald Meeker as author or co-author have been published by: Transportation Research Record, National Academy of Sciences (2 author, 3 co-author) Ergonomics in Design, the Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (co-author) Transportation Engineering, the Journal of American Society of Civil Engineers (author)

WorldMaker 11y ago

It's still more testing and science than Highway Gothic ever got before being installed... Certainly we've had decades of real world experience with it since then, but it's fascinating seeing so many people being so critical against Clearview and it's design science versus Highway Gothic, which had far less rigorous a design process and evaluation.