A. Marcus (Ed.): DUXU 2014, Part III, LNCS 8519, pp. 369–377, 2014. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 A Pilot Study Using Virtual Reality to Investigate the Effects of Emergency Egress Signs Competing with Environmental Variables on Route Choices Elisângela Vilar 1 , Emília Duarte 2 , Francisco Rebelo 1,3 , Paulo Noriega 1,3 , and Ernesto Filgueiras Vilar 4 1 Centre for Architecture, Urban Planning and Design (CIAUD), Rua Sá Nogueira, Pólo Universitário, Alto da Ajuda, 1349-055 Lisboa elipessoa@gmail.com, {frebelo,pnoriega]@fmh.ulisboa.pt 2 Unidcom, IADE – Creative University. Av. D. Carlos I, 4, 1200-649 Lisbon, Portugal emilia.duarte@iade.pt 3 Ergonomics Laboratory, Universidade de Lisboa, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-004 Lisboa {frebelo,pnoriega}@fmh.ulisboa.pt 4 Beira Interior University – Communication and Arts Department, Rua Marquês d'Ávila e Bolama 6200-001 Covilhã, Portugal ernestovf@gmail.com Abstract. Emergencies (e.g., fire egress) into complex buildings are stressful situations which can provoke unexpected, undesired and sometimes unsafety behaviors in the users. Thus, the main objective of this pilot study was to inves- tigate the relative influence of new technology-based exit signs, when compared to the conventional static ISO-type counterparts, in the users’ wayfinding beha- vior during an emergency egress. A critical situation was designed in which the environmental variables and exit signs, at the 12 decision points, were giving conflicting directional information. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to the two groups (i.e., Static signs and dynamic signs), and their route-choices in the 12 decision points displaced along a route into a virtual hotel were col- lected using a Virtual Reality-based methodology. Findings suggest that for the group exposed to static ISO-type exit signs, the reliance on environmental va- riables decreased along the egress route, and for the first intersection about 73% of participants preferred to follow by the direction which was the opposite of that posted on the egress sign. However, when technology-based signs were used, the influence of the environmental variables was weak from the first deci- sion point to the end, as suggested by a compliance rate with the exit signs reaching almost 98% along the entire route. Keywords: Emergency egress, wayfinding, virtual reality, technology-based signs, exit signs. 1 Introduction Emergencies (e.g., fire egress) into complex buildings are stressful situations which can provoke unexpected, undesired and sometimes unsafety behaviors in the users.