Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!sce!ulysses!garym
From: garym@ulysses.UUCP (Gary Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Possibility of universal icons
Keywords: language, icons, culture
Message-ID: <6955@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: 29 Aug 89 20:00:55 GMT
References: <9268@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <1985@softway.oz> <6531@stiatl.UUCP> <30800@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <953@ciss.Dayton.NCR.COM> <6954@sunray.UUCP>
Reply-To: garym@cognos.UUCP (Gary Murphy)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 38

Proposition: Universal Icons are made, not born.

In all this discussion over universal icons, we seem oblivious to
those 'popular' icons all around us - in most cases, these are
hardly 'iconic' at all in the sense of containing an optimum
balance of completeness and visual simplicity, the goal of the
byzantine artists.  Like the plethora of 'wordstar'-like editors,
our efforts are confounded when we try to place too much importance
on capturing the familiar cues, ignoring empirical evidence that it
is easier for humans to learn completely different sets of codes
than to learn a new set which intersects with our previous habits.

I'm reminded of an experiment designed to test geometric recognition
in rats:  simple symbols, the circle, cross and square, were posted
one each on three doors, where the circle always denoted the food.
The rats failed miserably until someone noticed that rats look down,
not forward - Placing symbols on the floor dramatically improved the 
creatures' performance.  An icon, however designed, is still both a 
cue (to our program 'food') and an abstract metaphor, or at best a 
visual/cultural pun.  The latter will always be invisible to those 
who are not looking for it while the former is instantly apparent 
only after the fact.  Can you explain why the sad-eyed, nazarine man 
who holds an open book lettered in greek has his other hand poised 
in such a peculiar fashion? Every East-Orthodox Church has one of 
these 'unique recognizable PHYSICAL analogs', yet the meaning is at 
best unclear to all but the adepts.

I'm no expert in cognitive science, but I don't think our objective
is as much to produce universal, spontaneously interpretable icons
as it is to produce memorable logos.  Looking at the media machine,
this suggests stylized, often abstract, but generally simple
images; Maybe this issue is better suited to comp.graphic-artists
than comp.cog-eng.
-- 
     Gary Murphy - Cognos Incorporated - (613) 738-1338 x5537    
  3755 Riverside Dr - P.O. Box 9707 - Ottawa Ont - CANADA K1G 3N3
          e-mail: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!garym         
  Cosmic Irreversibility: 1 pot T -> 1 pot P, 1 pot P /-> 1 pot T