4 ms·
Okay, I've got a crazy idea. Why not create a combination of words that expresses the thing, instead of these very weird and incomprehensible-at-first-glance ic
by owenversteeg 9y ago
Okay, I've got a crazy idea. Why not create a combination of words that expresses the thing, instead of these very weird and incomprehensible-at-first-glance icons?
For example, for proteins: the word "protein" is understandable in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek and Swedish. The Russian "belok" should be understandable to Polish and Russian speakers, and the Dutch "eiwitten" should be understandable to Dutch and German speakers. Thus, writing "protein/belok/eiwitten" would be understood by almost everyone. "kcal" is even simpler and should be understood by almost everyone everywhere - maybe make it "kcal/calories" for more readability. "salt/sol/αλάτι" should cover everybody as well. Perhaps throw in the Cyrillic as well if McDonalds expects a large amount of uneducated Russians in their restaurants.
You could even put the native language in front to prevent any insult to cultures. Am I crazy, or might this actually work?
- Opalhart 9y agoWhat about people in those countries who cant read?
- cwbrandsma 9y agoPlease be sarcasm please be sarcasm...
- stijnstijn 9y agoIt's not an unreasonable question. Sure, only a relatively small percentage of the population of Germany/Poland/etc may not be able to read. But how many of those visit McDonald's? Do they visit it more or less often than other categories of people? How important is it for them to be able to understand these icons? Is the cost of developing icons/signs they also understand more or less than the amount of trouble them not understanding these icons would bring? Are we talking about actual literacy or the more nebulous category of "functional literacy"? There are cases where "devil's advocate"-style questions are worthwhile, and I'd argue that they're worth at least considering in this case.
- RugnirViking 9y agoI would be surprised to find that there would exist a significant proportion of people who simultaneously couldn't read and understood nutrition and proteins
- owenversteeg 9y agoHow would they understand the original icons, then? Nobody I asked understood them, except for the "kcal" icon which you would only understand if you could read. McDonald's plan to get people to understand them is to put the words next to the icons to get people to understand the icons, which also wouldn't help if you can't read.
- skrause 9y agoAs a German I would not understand "eiwitten" as "Eiweiß". However, the word "Protein" is also used in Germany as a regular alternative to "Eiweiß".
- pix64 9y agoLiterally "Egg White"
- mxfh 9y agoEven weirder, according to the chart on page 5, German seems to be the only one to describe the kcal unit unambiguously as Kilokalorien. Where all others go for calorien (Which could either mean the small cal or large calorie Cal/kcal) or completely unitless with describing it as energy content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie
- kalleboo 9y agoThe EU tried something like that with their energy efficiency label http://www.olino.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010_10_energielabel_B_with_h.png http://www.olino.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2010_10_ener...
- bevesce- 9y agoAs a Polish speaker "belok" sounds nothing like "białko" and wouldn't be understandable