4 ms·

> And more importantly, if I do not know English, I can trivially look up "on" and "off". Why is "|" as a symbol better than "on" as a symbol? > > Why is "Helve

> And more importantly, if I do not know English, I can trivially look up "on" and "off". Why is "|" as a symbol better than "on" as a symbol? > > Why is "Helvetica Man" inherently better than "men" and "toilet"? Knowing English is not necessary to recognize the words "men" and "toilet" with just as much facility as having enough savvy to remember that a silhouette of a man means "mens toilet". For one simple reason: If you know them, they're far quicker to read. Take road traffic for example. Everytime I visit America I notice how much more efficient clean, distinct symbols are: Practically everything is conveyed by written out words "Speed Limit", "No Parking", "No right turn on red", "No U-Turns" and so on. Such signs require, that I read and parse them. In fact, if one understands English it's probably taking longer to recognize a sign, because several functional units in your brain try to take precedence on the interpretation. In Europe we have very distinct symbols for each and every traffic regulation. The effect of this is that you can read them very quickly (it happens almost unconciously) and more importantly it even works if you glimpse them only in the periphery of your vision.

WalterBright 11y ago
I agree that once you know the European traffic symbols, they require less cognitive effort. Once you know what they are. You might think they are all obvious, having grown up with them. But they aren't. I went to Germany when I was 9, and they most assuredly are not intuitively obvious. Ironically, I was told that the European traffic symbols came about because the Europeans could not agree on which language to use. The only exception was they adopted the U.S. "STOP" sign.
- chias 11y ago
  They aren't intuitive to those of us who grew up with them either, nor are they meant to be. You learn them, though, if you want a license. It's not easy and is super frustrating and arbitrary when you're first going through them in preparation for your test. But if you want a license, you do it. And then you know them.
x1798DE 11y ago
I'm not sure that anyone actually reads the "flavor text" on most standard signs in the US, you mostly go by shape or whatever once you know the shapes, so I doubt there's any real cognitive overhead associated with reading the signs. (By contrast, the lack of even units on European speed limit signs always makes me think they are route markers...)
chiph 11y ago
Probably the most famous sign for Autobahn fans is the "End of restrictions" sign: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Zeichen_282.svg/2000px-Zeichen_282.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Ze... It's abstract in the extreme. You have to know what it means via a prior learning process, as there's no relationship with an everyday activity. For my US driver's license I had to learn maybe 50 signs, and they were easy to categorize based on shape and color (white rectangles are a restriction such as speed limits). For my European driver's test (for USAFE) it was over 200 different signs, and each had to be learned individually as they seldom had commonalities. The "Autobahn begins" sign is fairly intuitive, though: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Road_sign_autobahn_330.svg/612px-Road_sign_autobahn_330.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Ro...

WalterBright 11y ago

I agree that once you know the European traffic symbols, they require less cognitive effort. Once you know what they are. You might think they are all obvious, having grown up with them. But they aren't. I went to Germany when I was 9, and they most assuredly are not intuitively obvious. Ironically, I was told that the European traffic symbols came about because the Europeans could not agree on which language to use. The only exception was they adopted the U.S. "STOP" sign.

chias 11y ago
They aren't intuitive to those of us who grew up with them either, nor are they meant to be. You learn them, though, if you want a license. It's not easy and is super frustrating and arbitrary when you're first going through them in preparation for your test. But if you want a license, you do it. And then you know them.

x1798DE 11y ago

I'm not sure that anyone actually reads the "flavor text" on most standard signs in the US, you mostly go by shape or whatever once you know the shapes, so I doubt there's any real cognitive overhead associated with reading the signs. (By contrast, the lack of even units on European speed limit signs always makes me think they are route markers...)

chiph 11y ago

Probably the most famous sign for Autobahn fans is the "End of restrictions" sign: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Zeichen_282.svg/2000px-Zeichen_282.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Ze... It's abstract in the extreme. You have to know what it means via a prior learning process, as there's no relationship with an everyday activity. For my US driver's license I had to learn maybe 50 signs, and they were easy to categorize based on shape and color (white rectangles are a restriction such as speed limits). For my European driver's test (for USAFE) it was over 200 different signs, and each had to be learned individually as they seldom had commonalities. The "Autobahn begins" sign is fairly intuitive, though: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Road_sign_autobahn_330.svg/612px-Road_sign_autobahn_330.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/Ro...