Across the seas: a user-based evaluation of candidate telecommunication icons

This project aimed to evaluate candidate telecommunication graphical symbols (icons and pictograms) developed in the west by means of different memory tests. Prospective users from eastern (Asian) and western countries were used as subjects. A pilot studies in the Philippines and Sweden were initially done using three sets of twenty-three videophone symbols designed in Japan, USA and England. Cued response, subjective certainty and semantic differential tests were utilized. The succeeding studies utilized videophone symbols based on studies done by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). Three sets of seven videophone symbols from the ETSI study were tested among American and Asian subjects (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka), as well as an elderly group from Finland as special interest group. Overall, Asian subjects performed comparably well with the European and American subjects, preferring the same set of videophone symbols, but usually at the expense of more errors and confusions. However, tests with the elderly revealed an entirely different set of preferences and even failed to perform the free recall and semantic tests, strongly suggesting the need to have simpler and more practical tests for the elderly. These also implied the gravity of the problem that can occur if graphical symbols are introduced arbitrarily without considering the prospective users (e.g. the elderly) at the earliest design stages possible.