Q: What happens when you opt for icons ONLY on an interface so you can save on translation costs?
A: You get a completely unintelligible user interface.
Case in point: European vs. American home appliances
American: uses WORDS to say what happens
European: uses these icons with NO words.
What?
I can personally attest to the confusion of having these icons on appliances when we lived in Europe. A constant source of frustration.
“What’s that ‘P’ with the lines around it mean?”
“The BIG ‘P’ or the little ‘P’?”
“Is there a difference?”
“I don’t know”
“Neither do I”
(via Slate)
One Comment
The reason for the use of icons in Europe is very simple:
US market:EU market::one language:many very different languages
There are 23(!) languages that are considered “official” within the European Union. Producing a single front panel with icons and providing a printed manual explaining these icons is much cheaper than creating multiple different front panels for different languages.
I agree with you, Steve, that icons without any further explanation are much more difficult to understand than plain-language labels. Although I am not aware of any research in this matter, however, I would expect icons _with_ an explanation in the form of a manual, or somesuch, to be more approachable than labels in a foreign language.
Interpreting an at least somewhat intuitive graphic symbol after learning about its meaning seems to me to be less of a cognitive load than having to “translate” an abstract text label from a foreign language to one’s own.