Some stuff on freedoom I'd like to talk about.

[d1337r]

Oh, talking about exits, I had to create my own "direction to the exit" signs, too: (I'm working on a custom PWAD that uses a number of textures from Freedoom).

For a "quickly-taped Z", you mean something like that: ?

Here is an alternative design for crushing ceilings and radioactive floors:

[wesleyjohnson]

Direction arrows: not like that, separate arrow. Just some arrows to be used in combination with other signs, with the arrow about the height of a line of text and the same color.
Without a background border, the user can just offset to the portion they want.
Example: <-- OFFICE -->
Example: <-- DOCK -->
Example: <-- SHIPPING -->
I have tested some of these, but was not happy yet with the combinations. Unfortunately it would take 20 minutes to fetch the
textures, and post them up.

Z for zombie: The 'Z' is fine, but put it on a commonly available sign that would be found everywhere, like the triangular poison sign or the exclamation mark sign. Even a wet floor sign with a big red 'Z' on it would be good. An easily recognizable sign obviously altered with a big red 'Z' is what makes the idea work. It does not work so well when the background sign is unknown and confusing.

Crushing man sign: That is somewhat similar. The version I remember shows the entire body, with the knees buckling and the back bent, on a yellow triangle. It took me a long time to figure out what it was because of the little red marks around a floating ball. It took a long time to realize that the line below was the rest of his body.
The strange border is distracting, a familiar plain yellow triangle would be less confusing. Would help to move the man higher, make him smaller, show more body, and only have two red marks.

Radioactive floor: I did not get the idea that the floor was radioactive. I don't have any ideas on how to indicate floor without actually printing "Radioactive Floor" on the sign. The man pic did not help, actually confused things.

[Gez]

There aren't any real world sign for radioactive floor because in the real world, radioactivity doesn't work like in Doom.

The good old trefoil is still the best bet, but you can try biohazard too.

For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_symbol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hazard_symbols
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GHS_hazard_pictograms

[wesleyjohnson]

I highly recommend the pictographs in the references Gez provided.
Our signs do not have to be uniform. Unless the facility is very new, the signs will be a mixture of styles, depending on where and when they were bought.
We could also use a Corrosive sign, but a little simpler with only one
dripping acid (probably could leave out the test tube or substitute a barrel).

[wesleyjohnson]

The more that I think about the bloody 'Z' on a sign, the more that it feels like some other game did this already. Anybody remember a game with bloody 'Z' signs ???