Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!husc6!rice!titan!bro
From: bro@titan.rice.edu (Douglas Monk)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Cross-linguistic issues in the design of Icons
Summary: THIMK!
Message-ID: <816@brazos.Rice.edu>
Date: 21 Aug 89 18:23:39 GMT
References: <9268@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <1985@softway.oz> <1989Aug20.005726.27233@utzoo.uucp> <30767@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: root@rice.edu
Reply-To: bro@titan.rice.edu (Douglas Monk)
Organization: Rice University, Houston
Lines: 22

In article <30767@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Thom Gillespie) writes:
# My vote for possible universal icon word be the christian cross. How many
# cities around the word do you think do not have one sticking up in the air
# somewhere? 

Hmm. Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia, to name two.

# True universal icons are an impossibility, much as a true universal
# language -- same problems.

From some of my foreign friends' reactions to things I take for granted,
I would say this is trivially true. Icons, like language, must be learned.
But, if you keep the size of the iconic vocabulary down, icons could be
learned more quickly, I believe. Make them obvious and direct, not
reliant on analogy or language-based nuances. (Thermometers would make
better icons for temperature-related matters. The icon for spiciness I
have seen on Mexican picante sauce is a little white graduated chile pepper.
As spiciness is increased, more of the pepper is colored.)

Doug Monk (bro@rice.edu)

Disclaimer: These views are mine, not necessarily my organization's.