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Just because a symbol or icon is pictorial, it doesn’t mean people will know what it means.
Just because a symbol or icon is pictorial, it doesn’t mean people will know what it means.
Symbols or icons are great for communicating simple concepts to people who don’t speak your language. But don’t assume everyone is as fluent as you in the visual language of symbols.
Here is an example from a real test report on healthcare symbols designed for universal use.1
Few people recognised this as a medicine container. Even when told this, they didn’t know if it is supposed to indicate a pharmacy or medicine in general.
In contrast, this icon is easy to recognise, although the leaf could be drawn better. But why are we being shown an apple? It was meant to signify ‘nutrition’ but in the USA it is apparently used to mean ‘education’.
In a review of the final set of published symbols, Paul Mijksenaar & Fenne Roefs pointed out some simple truths about symbols and icons:
One of the basic rules of symbols is that they can never be considered “self explanatory.” Symbols should be considered as a visual language and as with any other language, their meaning has to be learned. Thanks to their pictorial clarity, the meaning of some symbols can be guessed, provided they are encountered in the appropriate context (airport, hospital, rail station, Olympic Games). Curiously enough, many road signs lack a visual cue to their meaning (like the signs for “no parking,” “major road,” and “no entry”), but since learning their meaning is mandatory for car drivers, they still work. That is, they work to a certain extent because many symbols still are misinterpreted or confused with other symbols.2
Paul is a leading wayfinding designer, famous for his systems for Schiphol and JFK airports.
In a multilingual travel context, symbols are of course essential. Since people are travelling between at least two airports, designers should not reinvent symbols for common features where one already exists in general use. The airport you leave from should speak the same language as the one you arrive at.
This is true to some extent for all symbols. A vocabulary has evolved, and we need to respect it before indulging in too much creativity.
1. SEGD / Hablamos Juntos (2010) Universal Symbols for Healthcare
2. Paul Mijksenaar & Fenne Roefs (2015) The SEGD/Hablamos Juntos Healthcare Symbols – Will They Work?, SEGD