TOPIC PRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION IMPROVEMENT USING DIFFERENTIAL PICTOGRAM EXPRESSIONS

Abstract

Pictograms are graphic symbols also called picture symbols. They are widely used, mainly in public accommodations. However, it is hard to say that meaning can be grasped quickly from a single pictogram. In most cases, pictograms are accompanied by some explanatory written text. In this paper, we propose a new method of displaying pictograms, displaying two slightly different pictograms successively, using the difference between the two frames to promote understanding. We limit ourselves to two frames because a higher number of pictograms makes it difficult to clearly express difference information and risks to confuse viewers more than help understanding. We experimentally evaluated the recognition properties of our new method. We showed one-frame and two-frame versions expressing the same content to 165 subjects and measured action time, percentage of correct answers, and semantic transparency. Using a Mann-Whitney U test, we found that in some problems, the semantic transparency was significantly (p < 0.05) higher for two-frame pictograms than for one-frame pictograms. Also, two-frame pictograms generally showed a better percentage of correct answers. We conclude that two-frame pictograms making use of difference information may contribute significantly to increasing pictogram recognition.