dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark) (08/13/89)
CROSS-LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF ICONS
Last week, I was discussing some issues of human computer interface design
with a non-academic, computer-using professional. I was talking about
icons, and how they might reduce some cross-linguistic technology-transfer
difficulties. We talked a little about the fact that some hand gestures which
are positive in our Angloamerican culture are obscene in some others. Then, as
a "good" example of icons, I started to talk about the "thermometer" icons that
appear on 'salsa' jars and other Mexican food packages in US supermarkets.
"Now there's an icon that needs no explanation, a really good one!", I was about
to say, when I realized that it might not "work" at all for a Spanish speaker
with no knowledge of English. Temperature, the quality that thermometers
measure, is represented by the "caliente-frio" axis in Spanish. But the
property of the sauce or other product that is being communicated is
described by "picante" in Spanish. English-speakers probably accept the
thermometer for spiciness without thinking, because we use "hot" to describe
both properties. Perhaps a Spanish-speaker with no English would not even see
a connection betweem "picante" and "caliente", and thus the icon would appear
to be a serving temperature recommendation, or make no sense at all.
It seemed like a neat example of cross-linguistic differences having an
influence on non-linguistic, iconic, communication as well. Reactions?
________________________________________________________________________________
David M. Mark, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
Department of Geography, SUNY at Buffalo
dmark@cs.buffalo.edumatt@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Matthew McGranaghan) (08/14/89)
In article <9268@cs.Buffalo.EDU> "CROSS-LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF ICONS",
dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark) points out an interesting feature of icons.
Not only must the graphic be recognizable, distinguishable and memorable -
it must use an analogy with which the user can connect. The example of
temperature and spicy-ness being related in English through the common
word "hot" is a good one.
In designing an icon for the geographic information system (GIS) function
often called "spread" several strategies could be taken, each using
a different analogy. The icon could represent the end product of the function
pictorially. In a simple form, the function returns the distance of all cells
in a raster from some set of specified cells - like the distances of all
points to the nearest road. One representation might be an isoline map of
distances from a road. Another slightly different approach might be more
process oriented(reinforciing the functional nature of spread) and show
essentially two images; one the original road and (in cultures which read left
to right) to the right an image of the isoline map. These icons each use
the nature of the function to build the analogy. A lingisticlly based
approach could be so abstract as to use the word "spread" to represent the
function (or an "S"). Alternatively, and still linguistic at root, one might
show a jar of peanut butter (or Cheez-Wiz, or whatever) and a knife SPREADing
a dollop of the stuff on a piece of bread or a cracker.
The later may make a very recognizable symbol just for its being different,
but its utiliity seems to depend on people being familiar with the term
'spread" having two meanings.
It also seems that there would be an advantage to those liguistic analogies
which depend on basic level terms, if only out of accessibility.
Reactions?
--
matt@uhccux Matt McGranaghan, Geography Dept
matt@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu U of Hawaii, 2424 Maile Way
{ucbvax}!sdcsvax!nosc!uhccux!matt Honolulu, HI 96822
matt%uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu@rutgers.edu 808/948-8465bks@alfa.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) (08/15/89)
In article <4560@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> matt@uhccux.UUCP (Matthew McGranaghan) writes: >In article <9268@cs.Buffalo.EDU> "CROSS-LINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF ICONS", >dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark) points out an interesting feature of icons. > ... >Reactions? After CHI '88 I had to keep reminding myself that the 'I' stands for Interaction, not Interface. After CHI '89 it seemed to have been further refined to Icon. I have been immersed in the same culture as the Mac interface designers, but it was not immediately apparent to me that a house means go back to the beginning, and I use a magnifying glass to enlarge or expand, not search. At the Wang "freestyle" exhibit, I was having a lot of fun with this new toy, but was having some problems using the "buttons" at the top of the screen. I thought that they were an abstraction of a cassette player or VCR panel. One of the developers (about 25 years old, I'm 38) informed me that they were patterned after the controls of a CD player which allows one to switch from track to track. "Oh," I said. "Like an 8-track cartridge player!" "A what?" he replied. An anesthesiologist at the same convention told me of a piece of electronic hardware which had on the back panel, above a socket for a cable, a picture of a heart with the international slashed-circle over it. After querying the manufacturer he found out that this means electrically isolated --no shock to the heart. Are band-saws user-friendly? Let's stop designing for tyros. ---------------- Brad Sherman <bks@alfa.berkeley.edu>