Abstract
In air travel, passengers’ safety knowledge is a critical factor in ensuring their survival in life-threatening or hazardous situations. Aviation regulations require airlines to provide safety briefings that inform passengers about in-flight safety procedures to ensure appropriate responses in emergencies. However, the effectiveness of in-flight safety briefings remains a concern. To this end, the current study explores the factors associated with the effectiveness of airline safety briefings from an information design- based perspective. More specifically, a 2×2×2 experimental design was employed, considering three key variables: information format (i.e., narrative vs. non-narrative), information framing (i.e., gain vs. loss), and information presentation style (i.e., cartoon vs. live-action). The effects of above mentioned factors on passengers’ attitudes toward watching the safety briefing video and their safety knowledge after some time. The results indicate that loss-framed messages are more effective in improving passengers’ memory of safety knowledge after some time. The use of cartoon-style safety information significantly improved passengers’ attitudes towards watching the safety briefing video, while introducing narrative information formats had a negative effect on it. Loss-framed messages combined with more live-action safety information presentations may have a more positive impact on enhancing the mem or ability of airline safety information. Findings from this study offer practical guidance for airlines aiming to optimize the effectiveness of their safety briefing.
Keywords
Information Design; Information Framing; Aviation Safety Briefing; Passenger Attitudes
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.895
Citation
Cao, Y., Huang, C.,and Tan, H.(2025) Exploring the Factors Associated with the Effectiveness of Airline Safety Briefings: An information design-based perspective, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.895
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 10 - Design Practices & Impacts
Exploring the Factors Associated with the Effectiveness of Airline Safety Briefings: An information design-based perspective
In air travel, passengers’ safety knowledge is a critical factor in ensuring their survival in life-threatening or hazardous situations. Aviation regulations require airlines to provide safety briefings that inform passengers about in-flight safety procedures to ensure appropriate responses in emergencies. However, the effectiveness of in-flight safety briefings remains a concern. To this end, the current study explores the factors associated with the effectiveness of airline safety briefings from an information design- based perspective. More specifically, a 2×2×2 experimental design was employed, considering three key variables: information format (i.e., narrative vs. non-narrative), information framing (i.e., gain vs. loss), and information presentation style (i.e., cartoon vs. live-action). The effects of above mentioned factors on passengers’ attitudes toward watching the safety briefing video and their safety knowledge after some time. The results indicate that loss-framed messages are more effective in improving passengers’ memory of safety knowledge after some time. The use of cartoon-style safety information significantly improved passengers’ attitudes towards watching the safety briefing video, while introducing narrative information formats had a negative effect on it. Loss-framed messages combined with more live-action safety information presentations may have a more positive impact on enhancing the mem or ability of airline safety information. Findings from this study offer practical guidance for airlines aiming to optimize the effectiveness of their safety briefing.