Miller Engineering Services

Product Warnings and Safety Instructions

Drs. Miller and Lehto of Miller Engineering have written four books on the topics of designing and evaluating labels, warnings, instructions, owner's manuals and other types of product information. Often these books provide a framework for the following aspects of warning label design:

• Designing on package, within package, and on-products labels, warnings and information
• Designing warnings and instructions
• Evaluating proposed product information
• Reviewing and modifying existing product information
• Developing programs for clients to evaluate warning effectiveness

In providing assistance in this area, the Miller Engineering staff draws upon the writings and collections of historical materials from Dr. Miller's twenty-five years of experience. This, in addition to the fifteen years of forensic and research studies conducted by other senior staff at Miller Engineering, has resulted in an extensive historical library in the areas of human factors, ergonomics, product safety, occupational safety, machine guarding, government and consensus safety standards. And, of course, the four books on warnings which have been written by our staff and associates have resulted in a part of our library of approximately 1200 publications addressing warnings and instructions alone. Our library allows us to prepare both contemporary reports and state of the art analyses geared to a specific year a product was manufactured or sold. What does not exist in our library is researched and retrieved through our local and on-line access to the University of Michigan library system, as well as all of the customary Internet resources.

Our research and design activities have resulted in numerous publications on a great variety of engineering topics. An extensive list of publications, as well as some samples of our work products, can be found below.

Sample Projects

Historical Analysis of Informational Requirements:

Tobacco; Arsenic

Warning Label Development:

ATV Joint Defense Council; Microsoft

Warning Label Analysis:

Workplace Accident Involving Power Tools

Many readers are interested in books Dr. Lehto and I have written, See: Warnings and Instructions Books by Lehto and Miller . A subset of the general publications that deal with warnings and safety instructions are listed below. For an overview of all Miller Engineering publications areas see: Publications by Miller Engineering Staff: Full Citations

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INDEX - Product Warnings, Labels and Instructions

Books and Dissertations on Warnings

Warnings Effectiveness

Product Information Development

Warnings Design and Modeling

Product Labels and Instructions

Books and Dissertations on Warnings

• Miller, J.M., Lehto, M.R., and Frantz, J.P. (November, 1994). Warnings and Safety Instructions: Annotated and Indexed. Ann Arbor, MI: Fuller Technical Publications.
• Frantz, J.P. (1992). Effect of Location, Procedural Explicitness, and Presentation Format on User Processing of and Compliance with Product Warnings and Instructions. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Miller, J.M., Lehto, M.R., and Frantz, J.P. (1990). Instructions and Warnings: The Annotated Bibliography. Ann Arbor, MI: Fuller Technical Publications.
• Clark, D.R. (1988). Model for the Analysis, Representation, and Synthesis of Hazard Warning Communications (Ph.D. dissertation), University of Michigan.
• Miller, J.M. and Lehto, M.R. (1987). Warnings: Volume 2: An Annotated Bibliography. Ann Arbor, MI: Fuller Technical Publishing.
• Lehto, M.R. and Miller, J.M. (1986). Warnings: Volume 1: Fundamentals, Design and Evaluation Methodologies. Ann Arbor, MI: Fuller Technical Publishing.

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Warnings Effectiveness

• Frantz, J.P., Rhoades, T.P., and Main, B.W. (1994). The Ability of Three Lay Groups to Judge Product Warning Effectiveness. Proceedings of the American Bar Association National Institute on Product Warnings, Instructions and User Information. Section A, pp. 1-16.
• Frantz, J.P. (1994). Effect of Location and Procedural Explicitness on Attention to and Compliance with Product Warnings and Instructions. To appear in Human Factors.
• Frantz, J.P., Miller, J.M., and Main, B.W. (1993). The Ability of Two Lay Groups to Judge Product Warning Effectiveness. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Santa Monica, CA. (pp. 989-993).
• Frantz, J.P. and Miller, J.M. (1993). Communicating a Safety-Critical Limitation of an Infant Carrying Product: The Effect of Product Design and Warning Salience. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. Volume 11, pp. 1-12.
• Frantz, J.P. (1993). Effect of Location and Presentation Format on Attention to and Compliance with Product Warnings and Instructions. Journal of Safety Research. Vol. 24, pp. 131-154.
• Frantz, J.P. and Miller, J.M. (1992). The Effect of Product Design and Warning Salience on the Perception of Safety-Critical Product Attributes: A Case Study in Infant Carriers. In S. Kumar (Ed.), Advances in Industrial Ergonomics & Safety IV (pp. 569-576). London: Taylor & Francis.
• Lehto, M.R. (1992). History of Warnings Effectiveness. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Frantz, J.P., Miller, J.M., and Lehto, M.R. (1991). Must the Context be Considered When Applying Generic Safety Symbols?: A Case Study in Flammable Contact Adhesives. Journal of Safety Research, 22, pp. 147-161.
• Lehto, M.R. and Miller, J.M. (1988). The Effectiveness of Product Warning Labels. Journal of Products Liability, Vol. II, pp. 225-270.
• Lehto, M.R. and Miller, J.M. (1988). The Effectiveness of Warning Labels. In Personal Injury Review 1988. New York: Matthew Bender Press.

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Product Information Development

• Clark, D.R. (1993, 1992). Warnings, Labels, and Product Packaging. Continuing Engineering Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, July 21-23, 1993 and July 15-17, 1992.
• Frantz, J.P. (1992). Product Information Design Methodology. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Frantz, J.P. (1992). Benefits of Product Information Methodology. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Miller, J.M. (1992). Introduction to Product Information Methods. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Miller, J.M., Frantz, J.P., and Rhoades, T.P. (1991). A Model for Developing and Evaluating Product Information. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 35th Annual Meeting (pp. 1063-1067). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.
• Rhoades, T.P., Frantz, J.P., and Miller, J.M. (1990). Emerging Methodologies for the Assessment of Safety Related Product Communications. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 34th Annual Meeting, (pp. 998-1002). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

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Warnings Design and Modeling

• Frantz, J.P. and Rhoades, T.P. (1994). Recent Developments in Safety Labeling and Their Implications for the Material Handling Industry. To appear in the Proceedings of the North American Material Handling Institute Show and Forum.
• Frantz, J.P. and Rhoades, T.P. (1993). A Task Analytic Approach to the Temporal and Spatial Placement of Product Warnings. Human Factors. Volume 35, pp. 719-730.
• Lehto, M.R. (1992). Cognitive Guidelines for Warnings Design. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Lehto, M.R. (1992). Using Hypertext for Providing Warnings Information. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Miller, J.M. (1992). ANSI Manual Guidelines. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Miller, J.M. (1992). Canadian/European Warnings Development. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Lehto, M.R. (1992). Designing Warning Signs and Warning Labels: Part I-Guidelines for the Practitioner, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Vol. 10, pp. 105-113.
• Lehto, M.R. (1992). Designing Warning Signs and Warning Labels: Part II-Scientific Basis for Initial Guidelines, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, Vol 10, pp. 115-138.
• Lehto, M.R. (1991). A Proposed Conceptual Model of Human Behavior and its Implications for the Design of Product Warnings, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Vol. 73, pp. 595-611.
• Lehto, M.R. (1991). Designing Warning Signs and Labels, First International Invited Symposium on Ergonomic Guidelines and Problem Solving, Kilbom, A. and Mital, A. (co-organizers), Lake Tahoe, NV, June 10-11.
• Lehto, M.R. and Papastavrou, J.D. (1990). A Distributed Signal Detection Theory Model: Implications to the Design of Warnings, Proceedings of the 1991 Automatic Control Conference, Boston, MA, pp. 2586-2590.
• Lehto, M.R. (1989). Simulation in the Evaluation of Warnings and Safety Instructions, Invited Lecture, Simulation for Safety at Work, an educational workshop organized by the Nordic Institute for Advanced Training in Occupational Health (NIVA), Turku, Finland, June 12-16.
• Clark, D.R. (1988). Model for the Analysis, Representation, and Synthesis of Hazard Warning Communications (Ph.D. dissertation), University of Michigan.
• Miller, J.M. and Lehto, M.R. (1987, October). Predicting Warnings-Induced Behavior Changes. Paper presented at the Human Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting, New York.

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Product Labels and Instructions

• Frantz, J.P. (1992). Problems with Labeling Standards. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Rhoades, T.P. (1992). Using Products Without Instructions. Presented at the University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. Course: Warnings, Labels and Product Packaging: Design and Compliance.
• Rhoades, T.P., Frantz, J.P., and Hopp, K.M. (1991). Manufacturer's Product Information: Is It Transferred to the Second Owner of a Product? In Proceedings of Interface '91: The Seventh Symposium on Human Factors and Industrial Design in Consumer Products (pp. 100-104). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.