Prevalence of Pictographs

 

Photo Credits: Unsplash

By Lilian H. Hill

In addition to visual and graphic literacy, a necessary skill today is the ability to decipher pictographs. A pictograph is a symbol used to communicate a word, phrase, or idea. You have seen them in road signs, icons on your smart devices, and many other situations. They can be used to illustrate numerical information and statistical data. They may stand alone or be incorporated into charts and graphs. Reading either text or pictograms requires that the brain abstracts information that represents spoken language. Pictogram and pictograph tend to be used as interchangeable terms. 

Pictographs in History

Pictographs are nothing new. Stone age rock paintings can be complex murals revealing stories about the makers’ spiritual beliefs (Kratz, 2019). Cave paintings made by ancient cultures also incorporate visual symbols. Pictographs were made by painting surfaces, while petroglyphs were made by incising markings into stone (Kratz, 2019). An interesting side note is that the visual form may be influenced by the substances used. Making marks in soft clay allows for curvilinear marks while incising symbols into stone forces the maker to use straighter lines. The colors of the marking were influenced by the available substances like minerals, gemstones, and dyes.

Some cultures used symbols, or pictographs, as their alphabet. Egyptian hieroglyphics used pictographs. Several modern alphabets are logographic, meaning that a symbol represents a word or morpheme, instead of alphabetic where letters represent individual speech sounds that make up a word. Those logographic symbols may be read either as pictures, as symbols for objects, or as symbols for sounds.  

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Importance of Understanding Pictographs

Pictographs have permeated our daily lives because they are used to convey instructions on medications, product labeling, transportation, safety labels, advertising, and as icons and emojis on computer screens. They communicate information in a visual mode that humans can quickly interpret. They are often used to convey written instructions, especially regulatory, mandatory, warning, and prohibitory information. They are useful when:

 

1. The information must be processed quickly, for example in road signs.  
2. Multiple languages are in use.
3. People have low literacy abilities.
4. Individuals have visual restrictions. They may be able to read a symbol more easily than print.
5. A legal obligation exists to inform people for safety purposes.

A situation that requires informing people is the danger of mixing bleach with ammonia. I remember when our custodian mixed the two substances and the toxic cloud that formed. It can be deadly, and fortunately, the custodian survived. It happened because he was an immigrant who could not read the warning label written in English. The skull and crossbones symbol used to mean toxicity might have helped him to avoid the problem. This incident happened 40 years ago. Due to Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, it is doubtful that a person unable to read English would be allowed to work with chemicals today. 

Photo Credits: USP Pictogram Indicating Toxicity

Common Examples of Pictographs

A good example of a pictograph is the Wong-Baker Pain Scale that you have probably seen in a medical office. Originally designed for young children who would have a difficulty rating their pain on a scale of 1 to 10, the Wong-Baker Pain Scale incorporates faces with different expressions from happy (meaning no pain) to very unhappy (meaning extreme pain). Sometimes the scale is color-coded like stoplights, with green for calm and red for agitation. Health professionals quickly discovered that this tool was also useful for patients speaking multiple languages or those with low numeracy or numeracy.

You have also seen pictographs on prescription labels. The symbols are used to indicate ideas like “shake well,” “take with food,” “refrigerate,” or “take 4 times a day.” The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Pictogram Library enables medical professionals to use standardized images to convey medication instructions, precautions, and/or warnings to patients and consumers. Pictograms are particularly helpful in passing on important information to patients with lower-level reading ability and patients who use English as a second language. Pictograms are available free of charge to professionals and patient information providers to reinforce printed or oral instructions. They are not meant to be used without verbal patient counseling.

Although thought to be universal, a study by Dowse (2000) found that the meaning people derive from symbols is influenced by culture. For example, some populations in South Africa interpreted the symbol for shake well on a medication label (lines going up on one side of a bottle and going down on the other side) as preparing to throw an object. The image of a prescription bottle was understood as a trash can. Another issue is that pharmacy pictographs incorporate assumptions about a lifestyle that can be problematic. Not everyone is able to consume three meals a day or is able to refrigerate their medication. What is someone who is homeless or skipping meals to make ends meet supposed to do?

Another example of a situation where pictographs are used is an airline patient safety card. Containing very few words, symbols are used to depict the steps involved in using exits in emergency situations, buckling seatbelts, using air vents, donning lifejackets, and protecting young children in times of emergency.  This makes sense because people of many nationalities fly together.

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Company logos are another form of pictogram. Marketing companies use them to create brand recognition. For example, the double circles of the Mastercard logo are instantly recognizable, most of us recognize the Nike Swoosh and Target's red and white bullseye is well known.

Advantages of Pictograph Use

Five advantages of pictograph use are described below:

1. Rapid interpretation. The human brain responds to and interprets visual information rapidly.
2. Makes Information More Noticeable. People can scan and make meaning from visual images quickly and will recognize familiar warning symbols.
3. Promotes Retention. Reading and interpreting pictographs use similar brain pathways. The brain also prioritizes visual information and links visuals with emotions, making pictographs easy to remember. People tend to retain 10 – 20% of written information and 65% of visual information.
4. Helpful for People with Low Literacy. In public settings, people will vary from one another considerably. Given that a large number of people struggle with literacy, pictographs are used to convey critical information for health, safety, and information purposes.
5. Cross-Cultural Communication. In settings where people of multiple cultures who speak different languages mingle, pictographs communicate essential information. For example, a traveler can recognize the symbol for the restroom in airports worldwide.

Disadvantages of Pictograph Use

There are 6 disadvantages discussed here, and there are probably more.

 

1. No Standard Interpretation. While many pictographs are commonly used and understood, there are many variations and interpretations can vary.

 
2. Pictographs Incorporate Assumptions. The pharmacy examples discussed above are one example of assumptions in pictographs.

 
3. Culture Influences Interpretation. Pictographs may be understood in ways that vary from their intended meanings by people of different cultures. In dangerous situations where the correct interpretation is vital, this can lead to confusion, injury, and even death.

 
4. Pictographs Lack Detail and Contextual Clues. Pictographs are simplified visual images and provide little detail and context. Even when accompanied by limited text, their meaning may not be clear.

 
5. Poor Quality Pictographs. Images that are fuzzy, pixelated, and disproportionally resized are difficult to understand. Overuse of common stock images for multiple purposes can cause confusion.

 
6. Proliferation of Pictographs. Many organizations and people are using pictographs. Software such as Visme allows the creation of pictographs for many purposes. The more pictograph images become available, the more opportunity for misinterpretation and confusion exists.

Are we too reliant on pictographs?

Some purists may argue that the proliferation of pictographs degrades language and literacy skills. Others would say that pictographs allow rapid communication in emergency situations, foster communication across cultures, support product branding, and assist people with low literacy skills.

References

Dowse, R. (2004). Using visuals to communicate medicine information to patients with low literacy. Adult Learning, 15(1/2), 22-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/104515950401500106

Kratz, J. (2019, October 24). Pictographs, etroglyphs, “Rock Art,” What is the difference? A blog of the US National Archives. Retrieved https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2019/10/14/pictographs-petroglyphs-rock-art-what-is-the-difference/

Tijus, C, Barcenilla, J. de Lavalette, B. C., & Meunier, J. (2007). The design, understanding and usage of pictograms. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004253254_003

U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (2000). The role of pictograms in the conveying of consumer safety information. Retrieved http://www.ergo-eg.com/uploads/digi_lib/362.pdf

USP Pictograms. Retrieved https://www.usp.org/health-quality-safety/usp-pictograms