Pictorial communication of abstract verbs in relation to human‐computer interaction
Yvonne Rogers, David J. Oborne · British Journal of Psychology · 1987
Graphic symbols, commonly known as icons, are becoming increasingly popular as a medium to present information about computer systems and their command operations. This paper considers the extent to which such pictorial representations can be generated for verb actions like those used at the computer interface and, subsequently, how effective they are in communicating their intended meaning. An initial experiment showed that the majority of subjects were able to produce drawings for a set of verbs, but found it much easier to do so for high imagery verbs compared with low imagery verbs. Furthermore, drawings produced for the high imagery verbs were considered to be the most representative and also had the highest stereotype strength. The types of representation found in these drawings were generally complex, depicting concrete objects in conjunction with conventional symbols and various line supplements. The results from this study are discussed in relation to various factors which contribute to the production of pictorial images and how these may affect the communicativeness of such images when used as icons at the computer interface.