Effect of Location, Procedural Explicitness, and Presentation Format on User Processing of and Compliance with Product Warnings and Instructions

Two experiments examined the effect of three presentation factors on the attention to and compliance with on-product warnings and instructions: 1) the location of safety information relative to usage instructions, 2) the procedural explicitness of precautions, and 3) the presentation format of usage instructions (prose vs. numbered list). The experiments also examined user processing of product information during task performance and assessed the benefits of a user-oriented approach to warnings design relative to current practice.