Advancing Icon Design for Global Nonverbal Communication: or What does the word 'bow' mean?

Abstract

Written language is limited in effectiveness to those who can read. Verbal language is effective only for those who understand the particular language being spoken. But everyone, except those with obvious visual impairment, can effectively perceive images without regard for literacy or language. For decades these realities have suggested the promise of a universal visual language but with little real result. The occasional Olympic event sign or restroom door sign are the state of the art for global non-verbal communication. While icon design has evolved little since the 1970s, the world has moved on. Increasing economic globalization and the expansion of global communication networks have made it easier to deliver messages and more important to do so, while science has advanced understanding of perception and cognition establishing principles only speculated about in the 1970s. The dream of using images to greatly facilitate global communication persists. Unfortunately, image-based communication is not currently well enough informed by principles of effectiveness to attempt such a project. To address this problem a team of researchers assembled at the University of Cincinnati to explore the development of advanced techniques for global and non-verbal or image-based communication. The team explored novel approaches and identified several principles designed to expand icon-based communications so that it can communicate more complex messages and more abstract concepts with greater specificity than previously.