Tips for Improving Your Evacuation Maps

Severe Weather Procedures from the CDC
ROI in the Emergency Management World

Tips for Improving Your Evacuation Maps

Download as PDF

Having read thousands of emergency response plans, here are a few tips for improving your evacuation maps. Your creative services department can incorporate these changes or our design team can enhance your maps for a small fee:

  • When it comes to emergency response and safety, functionality trumps aesthetic beauty. Make key information such as AED locations, stairwells, street names, rallying points, twice or three times as large as you have them now.
  • Use a font that’s easy to read. A capital I (as in, Integral), should not look like a lowercased l (as in, lose). You can’t go wrong with Times New Roman.
  • The goal is for people to be able to read your maps even if there’s smoke in the room and they don’t have their glasses. Black is a lot easier to read than gray.
  • If you’re not sure if something needs to be on your map, leave it out. Leaving it out will help the critical information will pop.
  • Vertical maps will be easier to read on smartphones than squares or circles.
  • For printed guidebooks, foldout sheets or 8½ x 11-inch pull-up sheets can make a big difference. Here’s a picture of a foldout map in an emergency guidebook:

Wellspring Info can improve your emergency response plan, boost your OSHA-compliance, and then turn your plan into emergency guidebooks or an app:

Guidebooks: www.WellspringInfo.com
App: www.WellspringInfoApp.com
Phone: 800.268.3682

Terms & Conditions of Wellspring Info, Inc.’s content suggestions: Any content or content suggestions provided by Wellspring Info are provided “as is” without representation or warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. The risk as to the quality, accuracy, and performance of the content is with you. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold Wellspring Info, Inc., its affiliates, employees, shareholders, partners, vendors, and content sources harmless from and against any and all claims, liability, losses, damages, costs and expenses. © All rights reserved.