Contribuições da ergonomia informacional para a educação ambiental: recomendações para comunicação visual em São Luís - MA

Abstract

The right to a balanced environment, guaranteed by the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, highlights the need for strategies capable of strengthening environmental education and encouraging more sustainable behaviors. In this context, this research aimed to develop and evaluate recommendations for broad-reach visual communication systems, based on Information Ergonomics and Behavior Change, to support Environmental Education processes in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. The research was applied in nature and exploratory-descriptive in terms of its objectives, and was developed in four stages: an integrative literature review, investigation of the local context, development of a prototype project, and heuristic evaluation. The review analyzed eight studies using a data extraction matrix to identify and systematize principles and heuristics from the investigated fields. These data were organized using an affinity diagram, resulting in a design checklist comprising 24 items distributed across six categories. The local context was investigated through documentary analysis of a research report on Environmental Education in São Luís, based on interviews, observations, and questionnaires with public officials and citizens. The checklist was applied to the development of a prototype project set on Avenida Litorânea, in São Luís, incorporating Behavior Change and Environmental Education strategies. The heuristic evaluation was conducted individually by four specialists from the fields of Design, Environmental Education, and Psychology, who evaluated the project according to the checklist categories, assigning scores from 1 to 5 and providing written assessments. The project achieved an overall mean score of 4.0, indicating satisfactory compliance with the recommendations and proposed objectives. The evaluation also identified areas for improvement related to audience-appropriate language, cognitive load, contextualization of solutions, inclusion, feedback and monitoring, and further characterization of the target audience. As contributions, the research presents a design checklist comprising multidisciplinary recommendations, connects knowledge from Information Ergonomics, Visual Communication, Environmental Education, and Behavior Change, and demonstrates the application of behavior change strategies in a project adapted to the local context. The results indicate the potential of the checklist as a tool to support the design process, although further applications are necessary to expand its validation across different contexts.