Proposal for Planning of Strategic Signs Inducing Actions for Vitalization of Coastal Cities Available to Purchase

At present, coastal cities in advanced countries are losing their vitality and their sprawl has been depriving these cities of the unique attraction provided by their coastal position with seaside spaces. For the vitalization of coastal cities, it is important to increase the visiting population to seaside spaces from other areas. While the rapid development of advanced countries in the modern era has been founded on the economic order originally established by the Industrial Revolution, the phenomenon of an aging society with fewer children which is currently in progress makes such economic foundations vulnerable, constituting a social problem which must be urgently dealt with. This study features the planning of signs as a technique for the development of a universal design in consideration of the imminent increase of the number of the elderly and disabled and as a measure to increase the visiting population to vitalize coastal cities while focusing on the planning of signs as a system to assist ocean recreational activities. The underlying concept is that these activities have the potential to secure or even increase the number of visitors to seaside spaces which have a variety of resources and characteristics. As the introduction of a new strategic concept for the planning of signs as a measure to increase the number of visitors is essential, the focus is placed on pictogrammes which are visual signs with a superior information conveyance function to other types of signs. The outcomes of this study presented here are (i) techniques to configure pictogrammes which are easy to understand by all and which are capable of inducing people’s desire for actions and (ii) concrete pictogramme designs.