Getting Around with Pictures
If a picture aspires to be worth a thousand words, then a pictogram wants only to replace about 4.
We've developed an array of icon libraries for clients over the years, so we enjoy the challenge of saying a lot with a little visual design. An icon or pictogram must be: descriptive, clear, distinguishable, memorable and simple. It must draw upon the universal visual cues encountered every day by every person on the planet to be effective. Even a library of 'smiley-faced' emoticons must explore and represent universally recognized facial expressions so the end-viewer is never confused about their meaning. This is far more challenging than it at first appears and designers who deal in this craft for public transportation, highway systems, street markers and public buildings (and, oh yeah, web applications!) deserve a lot of credit for minimizing the chaos of modern living.
PingMag.com, an expatriate community web site based in Tokyo published a little while back a great blog post about the nature and value of pictograms to foreigners (and other illiterati) navigating that foreign landscape. My favorite is the one at left here - not only does it warn of oncoming bicycle traffic, but it also appears to have inadvertently depicted a 'pickpocket' in the act. To view the entire blog, click here.