Evaluation of Safety Label Design

Abstract

The testing and evaluation of newly designed warnings or safety communications is of utmost importance so that consumers understand the hazards and act accordingly. This paper presents the theoretical model underlying the cognitive interviewing methodology and discusses the applicability of this method for evaluation of warning labels and safety communication. Cognitive Interviewing methodology provides the framework and methodology to systematically test and evaluate effectiveness of warning information processing at each of the stages described by the Communication-Human Information Processing Model (C-HIP). The paper concludes with a comparison of cognitive interviewing and focus group methodology in the evaluation of a warning label. The responses of ten participants in each of the two groups were analyzed to determine which method produced more useful data for safety label evaluation and redesign. The cognitive interviews yielded more detailed, relevant, and useful data than the focus group.