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I am Geoffrey Peckham and I chair the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Standards
having to do with graphical symbols. We're here at the Design Department of Delft University
to discuss the standardization of graphical symbols.
Between sessions I spent a few minutes in a busy hall with several of our key committee members in the hope of giving you an appreciation
for the topic of symbol standardization and how we are literally inventing a new language
that's global in nature and independent of words. Here's Barry Gray, our Chairman.
In this day and age people of course move around the world much more - for pleasure,
in tourism, you know - if you see the signs at the airports or in the railway station or
even in the shopping mall. You know, if you can recognize what the symbol means it doesn't
matter what the language is. If you're working in an environment where there is risk, if
you could recognize the graphical symbols which tell you what those risks are and understand
them quickly, simply, goodness me, that's good news for everybody. And if you're moving
from one country to another, you see the same symbols, you know the same dangers. And it's
the same in your vehicle - if you see on your dashboard, or wherever, the same graphical
symbols - wherever the car is made, wherever the tractor is made, it doesn't really matter.
In some cases, not being able to understand instructions and the symbols that go on instructions,
can have dire consequences. Here's Jeremy Foster.
We had a case some years ago where an aircraft ran into trouble because the person dealing
with the shutting of the doors didn't understand the symbol that instructed them on how to
do it.
With the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan that devastated the coastline and killed
thousands, graphical symbols played a significant role and it's a role that we need to consider
worldwide.
Is Japan taking any steps towards improving signage systems with regards to tsunamis?
The incredible tsunami attacked us so that we have to think about the use of symbols
or hazard maps more critically.
How would these symbols help people who are fleeing a tsunami?
One of the symbols means "Escape Point from Tsunami." It means high place or high buildings.
If people see the tsunami symbol or if people studied before the tsunami they would know
where to escape and they would escape more easily.
Graphical symbols don't always communicate issues having to do with life and death, they
can also be about information that needs to be communicated on a daily basis, like accessibility
symbols.
It's a service to all people really, that we use the same symbol and not a different
variance that is hard to understand.
Japan has become the oldest country in the world, so we have to take care, not only of
the elderly people, but also many injured people to help with their transportation,
as well as their life. Priority symbols help us to help each other.
Standardization in graphical symbols is a logical response to the increase growth in
trade and travel. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining
equipment. Here is Chuck Crowell, a key member of our Committee, and he understands graphical
symbols and how they play a role in safety.
You never know sometimes when a piece of machinery goes someplace to be used that it is going
to stay in that location. And then if it moves across country boundaries to some place where
they don't have the same language or even within the same country that they don't have
the same language, the graphical symbol makes it easier.
If the user cannot understand the word, they will mistake to use control of the products
that sometimes gives damage to the user. Graphic symbols will be easier to understand.
So in a certain sense you are creating a whole language that's independent of words and it's
based on symbols.
Very much so. It's a new language independent of words. Symbols convey a message to all
sorts of people. Particularly, actually, people who have perhaps cognitive difficulties, you
know they will understand a symbol much quicker than they'll understand a set of words, as
we all will. If you are looking across a big area, you see a nice big symbol out there,
you know where the toilets are very quickly. You don't need to look to lots of directional
signs for other information, you can glance around, you see what you want to see. And
that can apply in the small scale as well as the large scale.
Creating a new language without words has it's own challenges.
It's quite simple to denote certain things. This is a fire extinguisher; this is the emergency
exit. It's when you get to the other more complicated things "do this" and "don't do
that" that it can become more difficult and more complicated. And so, when you are trying
to describe a series of things, rather than just one thing, then life becomes much more difficult.
It's easy to use symbols for nouns, much different for verbs and adjectives and adverbs
and things of that kind.
Precision and consistency are key when you're trying to communicate a message. This is why
ISO TC 145's work is essential.
It puts them all on a similar footing so that people will say, "Well that's a human figure
because it's drawn the same way in this area and some different area". If there were different
line weights or different arrows used or different ways of presenting a human body, it would
make it that much more difficult for people to be able to, at first glance, understand
the message.
Of course, it makes no sense to reinvent the wheel. In many cases we are building a work
that's already been done.
There were some very well established Standards bodies - ANSI in America, DIN in Germany,
and BSI in Britain - but a lot of the work we do, of course, is based on their experience.
You know, and we can call on the development of standards in those sort of countries and
others that have already done a lot of work. For example, I think the warning sign that
we use as an Emergency Exit - enormous amount of work was done in Japan to get the best
symbol to help people exit buildings in an emergency.
Building on the ISO Standards work, industries can develop symbols for their own specific
needs.
There will always be ongoing specific work done as different industries or different
sectors recognize either new processes or new controls to be done or new messages to
be sent.
So what's the process? How does standardization actually work?
One of the developments in the recent years has been the enormous amount of extra testing
that has been done - thanks, I must say, very much to the Japanese and the Koreans who have
supported this very strongly and taken on board the view that if you have a symbol that
you can demonstrate, communicate successfully, then it's better than one that you can't demonstrate.
The banking organizations decided they needed a symbol which would be recognized around
the world. They have suggested a number of possible alternative designs. And so we tested
them, we asked people, "What do you think this symbol means?" and there were various
versions of it with and without coins and notes and different ways of denoting currency
- the dollar sign, the yen sign, and things like that. We eventually found one which was
most successful and that more people can recognize what it meant than the alternative designs.
And that basically is the way in which standardization and testing works. You are trying to find
the thing that communicates most clearly to the majority of people.
It is a laborious process, but that equally is good in one way because what it means is
that we do involve people beyond their own committee members. You know, they go back
to their different countries, whether or not it's Japan, whether it's the US, the UK, Germany,
all sorts of countries across the world with different cultures. You know, we go to Korea,
we go to China, we involve people, but beyond our committee. We don't cover everything in
our committee. We haven't got knowledge of every aspect of the world, but people out
there do. And so they can contribute to it.
For Global Standardization to occur, nations must understand it's value and voluntarily
adopt the ISO Standards.
Is England adopting the ISO Standards, and why are they?
Yeah, we are adopting the International Symbols in the UK because we are part of the global
economy. But also because they are good symbols. You know, they have been well researched across
the world, we have had input from lots of nations and lots of cultures and I think that
helps. We've got lots of cultures in the UK. You know, it helps the understanding and it
helps the consistency and people from the UK go abroad more and more often these days
and equally we welcome people from other countries, both for work purposes and, of course, there
is tourism.
The Swedish Standard only has 33 symbols at this point. So the companies in Sweden or
anyone who wants to use the symbols wants more of course. So then we say that they can
buy the ISO Standard too.
If the Japanese Standard keep our own standard it will become difficult to export or import
products.
It's in an industry's best interest to do that because we want people to recognize these
things almost instantaneously.
More and more across Europe countries are adopting the International Standard - ISO7010,
as a National Standard because we recognize the additional work that has gone into it
and the quality of the design work.
And there's compounding - the more progress there is, the faster it comes; it seems to
be exponentially in that sense, which is gratifying. You think, "Yes we are making progress and
making progress more and faster as the years go by".
And the result of that progress will be?
Well, hopefully increased satisfaction for everybody in terms of successful communication
being made, decreased cost, decreased accidents. I see no down side.
We are making life easier for people first of all. Hopefully, we are making life safer
for people. Because you know if people see this common language of symbols across the
nations, across the world, they're more confident, they're more relaxed. If you provide things
that people understand in an airport, you know, it takes that level of tension down.
You know, if you're in the business of actually getting people out of a building in an emergency,
they see the signs they understand in a consistent way presented tot hem, you know, they're going
to be confident they're going the right way, they're doing the right thing and they're
less likely to panic.
The world is connected and it's been exciting to see the adoption of ISO Standards. If you're
looking to develop effective sign systems that communicate across language barriers,
use standardized graphical symbols. keep people safe and aware of their surroundings.