Paragraphs of Pictographs: The Use of Non-verbal Instructions for Equipment

Abstract

This paper is concerned with pictorial means of communicating instructions for the use of equipment. The problems differ from those involved in development of discrete symbols, in that instructions require representations of states, actions, and conditional relations comparable to those represented in natural language. Accordingly, our approach concentrates on analogues of linguistic factors and pictorial aspects of sequence and context.

Two tasks were used involving interpretation of sequences of pictorial instructions for an apparatus. In one task subjects gave a verbal interpretation of pictorial instructions; in the other task they used the same instructions to operate the device, which simulated the operation of an English pay-phone. Comprehension was affected by how much of the apparatus was depicted in each picture, segmentations of the picture sequence, and the use of insets. The effects of graphic variables and the error patterns implicate cognitive structures underlying comprehension of pictorial instructions (especially relations between actions and states). Amongst other comparisons with natural language, the inferential nature of interpretation is emphasised. Differences between the two tasks indicate people’s strategies in using instructions to operate equipment. Indeed, the effect of graphic variables can only be understood in the context of users’ strategies and their preconceptions about particular equipment.

There has been surprisingly little research on pictorial instructions for the operation of equipment. Obvious applications include international usage and user populations of limited literacy or with impaired language. Even literate native speakers of a language often find written instructions difficult to follow. Not only might pictorial instructions serve as an alternative to verbal texts, but they might also aid comprehension when the two are presented together.